The Karnataka election verdict indicates the ‘beginning’ of the ‘end’ of the BJP's rule in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, and the party may not secure 100 seats, then, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday. Banerjee, in the build-up to Karnataka elections had asked people of the state to not to vote for the party.
“My salutations to the people of Karnataka for their decisive mandate in favour of the 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 tweeted.
The Trinamool leader considered “stubbornness, arrogance, unpleasant behaviour, agency politics” among factors against which the people went, opting not to vote for the BJP. “I salute the people of Karnataka, voters… the winners, also, for their victory. Even (HD) Kumaraswamiji has done well. The next is elections in Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. I think the BJP will lose both states,” Banerjee said.
Considering the Karnataka verdict as an indication of things to come for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee claimed that options for the BJP are limited — Uttar Pradesh being one. “But, this time Akhilesh (Yadav) will do better, and I will be with Akhilesh, and with others also,” she said, adding that besides Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will have seats from Gujarat, and 3-4 seats from Haryana.
Banerjee said that even in south India — Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu (she referred to naming Chennai), and Bihar, Bengal, Jharkhand…, Delhi, Maharashtra (she referred to naming Mumbai), Punjab, others, the BJP will not get seats, she said. Earlier, she said, it was the ‘peak time’ where BJP managed around 300 seats (or less). “Now, I don’t think they may even cross 100 (seat-mark),” Banerjee said.
Reiterating other issues — state-Centre, importance of judiciary, governors — she has talked about in the past, Banerjee added that the BJP cannot (couldn’t) control the situation in Manipur. She also pointed at the sportspersons’ protest in Delhi.
“Today, they cannot control everybody, like this (this way). It’s not a government of the people. One ruler, one party, one ideology… I think people will not accept it. The way that was shown by Bengal, from Bengal to Bengaluru, the verdict the people have given makes it clear that there’s nothing called image (alone)…,” she said.