A Trinamul Congress supporter celebrates the party’s thumping victory outside Mamata’s residence. (PTI)

Patna, May 13: What the pollsters forecast a few days ago, Nitish Kumar had predicted almost six months back — a landslide victory for Mamata Banerjee.

The Bihar chief minister today congratulated Mamata on her victory in the Bengal Assembly elections, a verdict that ended 34 years of Left Front rule.

The Trinamul Congress leader had called up Nitish after his resounding win in the Bihar elections in November last year. Nitish had thanked Mamata and told her that he was confident she too would emerge victorious in Bengal and come to power with a two-third majority.

“Aap humse bhi badi bahumat se jitengi (You will win by an even bigger margin),” the chief minister had told Mamata, at present the Union railway minister, a post Nitish held in the NDA regime at the Centre.

If Nitish’s prediction had seemed far-fetched then — the NDA won 206 of the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar — the results today have born out his projection. The Trinamul-Congress alliance in Bengal is ahead in 225 of the 294 seats in the state.

Reminded about his prophecy, the chief minister said: “There was an atmosphere for change in Bengal for quite some time.”

Nitish though showered praise on Bengal’s vanquished chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.

“Buddhadeb-babu was an extremely good chief minister and an excellent administrator. He is a good human being too. But there was an atmosphere of change sweeping across Bengal which has manifested in the Assembly poll results,” he said.

Nitish, however, took potshots at the Congress, which has retained power in Assam and looks set to form the government in Kerala, but has been decimated by Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu.

“There is nothing for the Congress to be happy about in any of the states, including Kerala,” Nitish said.

The chief minister has of late targeted the Congress and the UPA government at the Centre for denying Bihar special category status and also rejecting several of his other demands.

Nitish said the Congress could not claim any credit for the decimation of the Left in Bengal. “It was Mamata all the way in Bengal… there is nothing for the Congress there,” Nitish said.

“In Kerala, too it is V.S. Achutanandan who should be congratulated rather than the Congress. I should not say it as the issue is related to another party. But I am sure that had the CPM supported Achutanandan from the outset, the Left would have surely returned to power in Kerala,” he said.

“The electoral results show that Achutanandan was an extremely popular chief minister but he was undone by the strategic mistake of his own outfit,” Nitish said.

The Bihar chief minister said the sweep by the AIADMK in Tamil Nadu was also expected. “I congratulate Jayalalithaa for her grand victory. But it has happened on expected lines,” he said, and also passed on his wishes to Tarun Gagoi, who has performed a hat-trick in Assam.