Mamata Banerjee on Monday blamed the Congress for remaining "onomoniyo (inflexible)", but did not spare the "obstinate" AAP either while expressing her worry over the inability of the two former INDIA bedfellows to hammer out some sort of an arrangement ahead of the Delhi polls.
This was the Bengal chief minister’s first known reaction to the Delhi Assembly election results, which were a debacle for her all-weather-friend Arvind Kejriwal with the BJP's victory there after 27 years.
With the convincing Delhi victory, within months of securing major poll triumphs in Maharashtra and Haryana, the BJP has all but controlled the June 2024 dent to the perception of its invincibility, much to the discomfit of regional satraps such as the Bengal chief minister.
Damage to the image of unstoppability of the Narendra Modi-led BJP’s electoral juggernaut, caused by the 237-seat INDIA in the 2024 general election, has not only been arrested but also — as the saffron ecosystem would feverishly proclaim — colour-corrected.
On Monday, Mamata in a closed-door meeting with her legislature party at the Bengal Assembly, purportedly asserted that the outcome of the recent elections for not only Delhi but also Haryana could have been very different had the Congress and the AAP managed to work together.
“Had the Congress not remained this onomoniyo, had they allied with the AAP, the haal (situation) in Delhi would have been very different,” Mamata was quoted as saying by a senior from the Treasury benches.
“The Congress securing only 5 per cent (of the vote share) in Delhi is also bad,” she added in the meeting, according to the Trinamool MLA. “Having said that, had the AAP managed to work with the Congress in Haryana, the results would have been very different.”
More often than not in such cases, Mamata blames the Grand Old Party and not the regional player in question. But on Monday, she did not turn a blind eye to the AAP’s obstinate unwillingness to work with the Congress in either north Indian state, despite knowing they were leaving the gates ajar for the BJP.
“The Congress got nothing in Delhi, but the AAP was defeated. The AAP got nothing in Haryana, but the Congress was defeated. Had there been better coordination between the two, the story of both states would have gone in a very different direction,” said a member of the Mamata cabinet, quoting her. “Both are dayi (responsible).”
The numbers in Delhi show that 14 seats of the 48 won by the BJP in the 70-seat Assembly could have gone to the AAP or the Congress had they contested in an alliance. In the triangular fight, the AAP won 22 and the Congress won none.
In Haryana, the BJP won 48 seats in the 90-seat Assembly, while the Congress suffered a shock defeat with 37. The AAP drew a blank with less than 2 per cent of vote share, but electoral data suggests that a half-a-dozen seats could have swung away from the BJP had the two INDIA constituents worked out an alliance.
At the meeting, Mamata also asserted that these things meant little in the Bengal context, and that she did not need an ally here to go past the two-thirds majority mark in the 294-seat Assembly.
Bengal goes to polls next year.
By way of INDIA constituents, the Congress and the Left are part of the Bengal electoral equation, but both continue to prefer equidistance in the state from the BJP and Mamata.
“We don’t need anybody here. Without anybody else’s support, we will still secure more than a two-thirds majority next year,” she was quoted as saying, perhaps in response to the chest-thumping claims from the BJP again, after the Delhi results, of winning Bengal next year. The BJP currently has 66 members in the 294-seat Bengal Assembly. Trinamool effectively has 227 and the ISF has one.
The Congress chief spokesperson for Bengal, Soumya Aich Roy, asked why Mamata never bothered to get the AAP to stand down in states where it had no serious chance of victory but ended up eroding the Congress vote share.
“If this is how you (Mamata) genuinely feel, then why were you offering all-out support to the AAP in states where it was simply contesting to weaken the Congress… in Goa or Gujarat? What business had you contesting in Tripura?” he asked.
“The likes of you have been exposed before the people of India for what you really are, in relation to the BJP… how polluted your so-called pure intentions actually are,” he added.
The BJP jeered at Mamata.
“The jitters from the Delhi results are being felt in West Bengal. A nervous Mamata Banerjee has told TMC MLAs that there will be NO alliance in Bengal,” posted the BJP’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya on X.
“It is not surprising that she applies a different yardstick to the opposition in Haryana and Delhi but is unwilling to cede space for the alliance at home,” added the Bengal co-minder of the party.