Trinamool will form govt in state for the third time:TMC

Kolkata: Taking a jibe at the BJP, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader and minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya on Thursday said BJP was losing its ground across the country.

The minister cited statistics to substantiate her claims.

"In the entire country, BJP has lost 66 per cent seats. They have secured a majority in 12 states. They have formed a coalition government in only 4 states. But in these states also, they have been defeated in 78 per cent seats. In other states, it has lost more than 85 per cent seats," the minister said.

Quoting the figures, Bhattacharya said: "Out of 234 Assembly seats in Tamil Nadu and 175 seats in Andhra Pradesh, BJP does not have a single seat in both these states."

The minister cited that in 9 states, BJP has less than 10 seats. "In Kerala (140 seats), Punjab (117 seats), Telangana (119 seats) and Bengal (294 seats), the BJP has 1, 2, 2 and 6 seats respectively," she said.

The minister added that in Delhi Assembly (70 seats), Sikkim (32 seats), Chattisgarh (90 seats), Odisha (149 seats), Jharkhand (81 seats), Rajasthan (200 seats) and Maharastra (288 seats), the BJP has only 8, 12, 14, 23, 25, 71 and 105 seats respectively.

The minister insisted that these figures clearly indicate the saffron party's poor performance in these states.

The party hasn't done any better even in the 4 states, where it has formed a coalition government. Its performance is quite dismal. "In Mizoram, where there are 40 Assembly seats, BJP has only 1 seat. In Meghalaya (60) Assembly, Nagaland (60) and Bihar (243), BJP has 2, 12 and 74 seats respectively," she said.

The minister claimed that the party started losing its ground in 5 states, where Assembly elections were held after the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.

"In Maharashtra, the party had 51 per cent votes in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. But, it decreased to 42 per cent during 2019- 20 Assembly elections in the state. The vote share, therefore, reduced by 9 per cent. In Haryana, BJP got 58 per cent votes in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The votes reduced to 36 per cent during 2019- 20 Assembly elections, registering a negative swing of 21 per cent. In Delhi and Bihar, BJP got 56 per cent and 50 per cent votes in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, which came down to 40 per cent and 38 per cent in the Assembly elections respectively. The vote share reduced by 16 per cent and 12 per cent in both the states," she said.

The minister said it was her party's responsibility to cite their vote shares as well. Thus, she highlighted the vote percentage of Trinamool Congress. "In 2014, Trinamool got 39.70 per cent vote, which went up to 43.03 per cent in 2019. It shows the steady growth of Trinamool Congress," she

added.

Speaking sarcastically, the minister said despite having secured only 18 seats in Bengal, BJP leaders were behaving in a way as if they had come to power in the state. She claimed that their dream of capturing Bengal would never be fulfilled. "People are with Trinamool Congress and they will vote for Mamata Banerjee for the third time," she said.

"Here, it's only Didi and Didi! There is no one who matches Didi. Therefore, in Bengal the last word is Didi and the first word is Didi," the minister said with a steely

resolve.

The minister reiterated that in 2021, the vote share of the ruling Trinamool Congress party will increase further. She also slammed the BJP for not listening to the demands of protesting farmers in Delhi.