All signs point to BJP’s rout in Bengal, says Derek O’Brien
The Trinamool Congress will get double the number of Lok Sabha seats that the BJP will secure in West Bengal, the party’s senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien asserted on Friday.
In an interaction with presspersons in New Delhi, Mr. O’Brien said all signs point to the BJP’s rout in the State but stopped short of giving a number.
In the 2019 general election, the BJP had won 18 seats. The Trinamool’s tally, on the other hand, went down from 24 seats in 2014 to 22 in 2019.
To back his claim, Mr. O’Brien pointed out that the BJP has managed to announce candidates for only 20 of the 42 seats in the State and they had to replace one candidate — Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh.
“They are yet to declare the candidates for six seats that go to polls in the first phase on April 19. In contrast, we declared all the 42 candidates in a single tranche on March 10,” Mr. O’Brien said.
Pointing at the disarray in the BJP, the Trinamool leader said that over the past two weeks, the BJP State leadership has made three trips to Delhi to sort out their problems. The BJP, he alleged, is unable to find candidates with several persons whom they approached rejecting to fight on a BJP ticket.
“This election is clearly a contest between ‘Modi’s guarantee’ that comes with no warranty and ‘Didi’s guarantee’ that the government delivers,” Mr. O’Brien quipped.
The party feels that the Sandeshkhali episode of violence will not adversely impact the Trinamool’s electoral fortunes. “We were quick to act against our own leaders, unlike the BJP that has not taken any action against the likes of [BJP MP] Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh,” he added.