After winning 125 seats, the BJP and Janata Dal United (JD(U)) have had the last laugh, after proving exit poll pundits wrong and defeating the five party strong mahagathbandhan which included the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD) amongst others with Tejaswi Yadav as the face of the alliance. The Mahagathbandhan won 110 seats and now makes way for Nitish Kumar to be sworn in as Chief Minister for a 4th term.
This was also a way for the BJP to send out a strong message to it’s former ally in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena, that parted ways over who will be the Chief Minister. The BJP wants to show that it has kept it’s promise in Bihar and intends to keep it’s word with it’s allies.
Meanwhile Shiv Sena mouthpiece Samna has said that Nitish Kumar becoming Chief Minister again in Bihar is an insult of public opinion and instead the real winning is RJD’s Tejaswi Yadav. “To put it clearly, these two opposite-minded parties have got success in Bihar, BJP and Rashtriya Janata Dal. In this Nitish Kumar and his party do not stand anywhere. The public has reprimanded Nitish Kumar, however, he has been pushed to the post of the Chief Minister, this is an insult of public opinion.” Said the Shiv Sena in it’s editorial piece in Samna.
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Moving focus to Kolkata, the victory of the National Democratic Alliance(NDA) in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections, BJP’s message is clear, next it is mission Bengal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his speech on Wednesday at the BJP headquarters in Delhi hinted at turning attention towards West Bengal. “Today, those unable to challenge us, some of those people have adopted the path of murder of our workers. In some parts of the country they think that by killing BJP workers they will fulfil their ambitions. I do not think I need to warn them, because in a democracy, the people speak.” Said Prime Minister Narendra Modi without naming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The BJP’s eyes are focussed on targeting Mamata’s party, the ruling Trinamool Congress(TMC) and their inefficiency in handling the state administration. Over the BJP few months, the BJP has been saying their party workers have been targeted in political killings, calling it a dent in the law and order situation.
Bengal next!@DilipGhoshBJP https://t.co/o9DB7wobe1
— Digvijay Singh (@DigvijayBJYM) November 11, 2020
Union Home Minister Amit Shah skipped a Bihar tour amidst the Assembly elections and visited West Bengal to address party workers last week in organizational meets, signals the growing interest in winning 200 Assembly seats in the 2021 West Bengal elections, a figure stated by Amit Shah.
The ambitious plan of winning by 2/3rd majority in a 294 seat Assembly poll, has put the TMC’s guard up as the party is hitting back at the BJP, yet being careful not to overdo it and send out a message that the party is cowed down by the saffron party. TMC instead is focussing on winning voter’s confidence by playing the development card. TMC has been in power in West Bengal for two terms.
