Bharatiya Janata Party National General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday reiterated his party’s claim that the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal might not be able to complete its term, and urged party workers to prepare themselves as an “alternative force” before the Assembly elections, PTI reported.
“We do not know whether the TMC government will be able to continue in Bengal till 2021,” Vijayvargiya said in his first meeting with elected representatives and state office bearers after the Lok Sabha elections. “We want it to, but we are not sure whether it would be able to as the people and party leaders are angry with the functioning of the government.”
He criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for being “an arrogant administrator”. He said arrogance had led to the “Trinamool Congress’s doomsday” in the state. Had the party been more humble, it would not have faced such a defeat, Vijayvargiya said. “They [Trinamool Congress] were so busy enjoying power that they forgot to serve the people,” he added. “They unleashed a reign of terror and the people ended up voting against them.”
He asked party’s workers to be humble about the BJP’s victory. “We have won hearts and blessings of the masses,” Vijayvargiya said. “In victory, we should be more humble and grounded. We should not be arrogant.”
Referring to a viral video of Banerjee reprimanding a group of people for chanting “Jai Shri Ram” as her convoy passed by, he asked if chanting “Jai Shri Ram” was a crime in West Bengal. “Why is it a crime?” he asked. “We want Banerjee and the TMC leaders to explain.”
Other leaders who were present at the meeting were BJP state President Dilip Ghosh and senior leaders Mukul Roy, Shiv Prakash and Arvind Menon. “We should live up to the expectations of the people and work harder to fulfil them,” Vijayvargiya said. “The victory we have achieved this time in Bengal is the penultimate step. The final step will be our win in the Assembly election in Bengal.”
Mamata Banerjee, one of the key faces of the Opposition, led an aggressive campaign against the saffron party in West Bengal. However, the BJP won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state and 303 of the 542 seats nationally.The Trinamool Congress won just 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Last week, two Trinamool Congress legislators and more than 60 councillors joined the BJP. Vijayvargiya had claimed it was “just the first phase”, and more leaders would come into the saffron party’s fold “in seven phases just as the elections were held in seven phases”.
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