Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday questioned the results of the West Bengal Assembly elections, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won in a landslide with 207 of the 294 seats, while the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) was reduced to 80 seats.
Although TMC supremo and incumbent Prime Minister Mamata Banerjee contested against the Congress and the Left – her partners in the larger India bloc – Rahul Gandhi said no party should gloat over the TMC’s defeat.
“Some in Congress, and others, are gloating over the TMC’s loss. They need to understand this clearly – stealing Assam and Bengal is a huge step forward by the BJP in its mission to destroy Indian democracy,” Gandhi wrote on X on Tuesday afternoon.
Congress and CPI(M), which contested as rivals, won two and one seat respectively. Neither party won a seat in the 2021 elections.
Gandhi added: “Leave petty politics aside. This is not about one party or another. This is about India.”
Kejriwal also questioned the result, noting that it came at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity was declining, he claimed.
“The BJP could not win in Bengal in 2016 and in Delhi in 2015 when the ‘Modi wave’ was at its peak. It won only three seats in each of these states. However, the BJP won in Bengal and Delhi at a time when Modi’s popularity is declining across the country. How?” Written on X.
Reacting to these remarks, BJP spokesperson in West Bengal, Debjit Sarkar, rejected the criticism.
“Grapes are sour. That’s all we can say. If these people have so many questions, why don’t they raise them before the Supreme Court under whose supervision the elections were held,” Sarkar told HT.
