Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday that Delhi Assembly election results showed that people had rejected the divisive politics and what they wanted were “food, clothing and shelter”.
Sources have said the Bengal chief minister was among the first to call his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal and congratulate him for his Aam Aadmi Party’s clean sweep of the polls.
“I have already congratulated Arvind. We have always been on great terms, as you might know. Every time I go to Delhi, we meet. He comes over. When the BJP was greatly disturbing them and there was a dharna, if you remember, we had all gone to him (June 2018),” Mamata said before leaving for a meeting at Bankura.
“We are very, very happy.. that such a lot of bigotry, such a lot of hatred and venom in their politics, that the people won despite that,” she added.
Sources in the Trinamul Congress said the chief minister had been keeping regular tabs on the trends.
“Didi called him and congratulated him long before he or anybody else there could be certain of the victory…. He thanked her profusely and demanded that she be present at his swearing-in. She told him she would certainly try to make it,” said a Trinamul leader.
In her interaction with journalists later, Mamata said she was impressed by the mandate even more in the context of the BJP’s mobilisation for wresting Delhi from the AAP.
“Delhi is our capital, but a small place. But even there, the way the entire central government, with everything it commands, the way they used brute force to conquer Delhi… yet they couldn’t,” said the Trinamul chief.
“The people have rejected this abysmal politics, of narrow-mindedness, of being divisive… the people don’t like this. People want jobs, people want roti-kapda-makan (food, clothing and shelter), they want development, they want peace. Politics should be for development, for peace, for the welfare of the people and the nation, that is the message of the Delhi mandate,” she added.
At 1.15pm, Mamata tweeted a congratulatory message for Kejriwal.
“Congratulations @ArvindKejriwal as #DelhiResults show @AamAadmiParty all set to win #DelhiElection2020 with a thumping majority yet again. Leaders playing on faith through hate speech & divisive politics should take a cue, as only those who deliver on their promises are rewarded,” she posted.
Shortly after, at a meeting of booth-level Trinamul workers in Bankura, Mamata mocked the BJP’s electoral track record since the general election victory last summer.
“Today, I have come here to you with good news. Before I arrived, our friend in Delhi, our dear Arvind, I called him up and told him: ‘I congratulate you on behalf of the people of Bengal’,” Mamata said to loud cheers from thousands in the audience.
“Have you noticed, wherever there are elections, the BJP now loses?” she asked.
“Bho-katta hoye gyachhey, ekebarey bhoradubi. Nai, ekebarey nai, mathay rakhbeyn…. BJP astey astey stateless hoye jachhey (Their line has been cut, totally drowned. They are not there, not there at all, keep this in mind…. BJP is slowly being rendered stateless.”
Mamata pointed out that in a matter of months since the general election triumph, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo’s BJP had lost major states such as Maharashtra and Jharkhand, before Delhi. Besides, she said, they lost Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in December 2018.
“Which state remains anymore? Out of the big states, they are now left with only Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. Everywhere else, bhoradubi (drowned), every election, dhopash-dhum (crashing fall),” she said.
Mamata said the people had been discarding the BJP and its politics of polarisation since the Narendra Modi government’s second term began.
“Aar shesh koloshta o’r dubiye debey agami Ekushey Bangla, toiri thakun er jonyo (And their final vessel will be drowned in 2021 by Bengal, be prepared for that,” she added.
BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh said: “The Delhi results should not excite Mamata Banerjee. The elections in Bengal will be entirely against her.”
