New Delhi: The Opposition fight to BJP in the 2024 general elections depended a lot on the Congress, Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee implied Friday.
She said, “If Congress wants, we all can fight (2024 elections) together.”
She had a word of advice for the Congress who has been wiped out in Thursday’s state assemblies. “Don’t be aggressive for now, be positive,” Banerjee said, as quoted by news agency ANI.
After his party came back to power in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was confident that “the state results had ensured the income of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls”.
Without directly referring to Modi, Banerjee said Friday: “This (2022 elections deciding the fate of 2024) is impractical.”
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor too has countered Modi’s confidence as a “false narrative”. He tweeted Friday morning, “Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 and not in any state elections. Saheb knows this! Hence this clever attempt to create frenzy around state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over opposition. Don’t fall or be part of this false narrative.”
Mamata Banerjee also said Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh should not be disheartened at the UP results because his votes had increased from 20 to 37 per cent. “He should seek forensic tests of EVM machines… there was loot and malpractices,” Banerjee said.
Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray said his party, the Shiv Sena, would expand its base in Uttar Pradesh and “see good results after five years”. He said Thursday’s big win for the BJP would have no effect on the coalition that is in power in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi – another important Opposition front.
The Shiv Sena, Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party and the Congress make up the ruling MVA in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis and former chief minister – who was the party’s election in-charge of Goa – said Friday that the state “was destined to see a change of power”. “BJP will form its own government in Maharashtra with full majority in 2024,” he told reporters in Mumbai.
The next Maharashtra elections will be held in or before October 2024.
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