Beginning of the end for BJP: Mamata

Kolkata: Claiming that BJP will not cross the 100-mark in the 2024 Parliamentary elections, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday described the saffron brigade’s poll debacle in Karnataka as the “beginning of the end for BJP”.

Banerjee also asserted the moral of the Karnataka Assembly poll results is that people “want plurality” and that “no central design to dominate” can repress them.

Congratulating the people of Karnataka for their mandate in favour of change, Banerjee said “brute authoritarian and majoritarian” politics has been vanquished.

“The people have voted against BJP’s arrogance, pride, paramount atrocity and politics of unleashing Central agencies on the Opposition. Our call of no vote to BJP has gone well with the voters and they have proved that BJP needs to be ousted from power to save the country,” Banerjee told reporters soon after she met Bollywood actor Salman Khan at her Kalighat residence.

She saluted the winners (Congress) without taking the party’s name for their victory and said H D Kumaraswamy (Janata Dal Secular leader) has also done well.

“The elections for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are coming and I am hopeful that in both the states, BJP will suffer defeat,” she added.

Banerjee reiterated that apart from a few states, namely Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, BJP will not be able to win elections. She further claimed that BJP has been shown the exit door in all the southern states.

“Bengal has shown the way and I think from here to Bengaluru, people will reject BJP as they have realised that the present dispensation at the Centre is not a government of the people, it believes in one ruler, one party, one ideology and has only one motto, that of vendetta politics,” she maintained.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee tweeted: “My salutations to the people of Karnataka for their decisive mandate in favour of change!! Brute authoritarian and majoritarian politics is vanquished!! When people want plurality and democratic forces to win, no central design to dominate can repress their spontaneity: that is the moral of the story, lesson for tomorrow.”

Banerjee had said a few days ago that she would be happy if BJP’s “downfall” starts with the Karnataka Assembly elections. “The faster the BJP leaves, the better it is. This work cannot be done by a split of votes. Their downfall is inevitable and I will be very happy if it begins in Karnataka. Though we are not contesting there, nevertheless, I appeal to the people not to vote for BJP in the Karnataka Assembly polls; vote for any other party you like,” she had said.