Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress is likely to return as the Chief Minister of India’s West Bengal state for the third consecutive term with her party leading in over 200 constituencies of the 294-seat state assembly.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Mamata on TMC’s victory and said his government at the Centre will give all possible support to the West Bengal government.
Results in the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha declared until the filing of this report around 9pm show, Trinamool Congress (TMC) bagged 69 seats and was leading in 146 others while its rival Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took 15 seats and was leading on 60 others.
Speaking to party leaders and activists from her Kalighat residence after the confirmation of her party’s win, Mamata said, “This is Bengal’s victory”.
Mamata, however, lost in a cliff-hanger in Nandigram to the BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, her former protege.
Suvendu was declared winner by 1,736 votes, not long after Trinamool tweeted: "The counting process for Nandigram has not been completed. Please do not speculate."
Mamata while speaking to the press said, “Covid is my first priority. We will work on this immediately. We will not do a big oath-taking ceremony. We will weather this storm.”
She said will distribute free vaccines to everyone. “[I’ll] also request the Centre to distribute free vaccines to all. If this does not happen, I will sit on a Dharna in front of the Gandhi Murti in Kolkata,” she added.
Mamata appealed to everyone not to bring out any victory procession now.
“But this will be after Covid is defeated. We will do a big victory rally at the Brigade Parade Ground later after the situation is normal,” she said.
Congratulating Trinamool for the West Bengal victory, Prime Minister Modi said his party BJP will continue serving the peephole in the state.
“Congratulations to Mamata Didi for @AITCofficial's win in West Bengal. The Centre will continue to extend all possible support to the West Bengal Government to fulfil people’s aspirations and also to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic,” he tweeted.
He added, “I would like to thank my sisters and brothers of West Bengal who have blessed our party [BJP]. From a negligible presence earlier, BJP’s presence has significantly increased. BJP will keep serving the people. I applaud each and every Karyakarta for their spirited effort in the polls.”
BJP general secretary in West Bangal Kailash Vijayvargiya has credited Mamata Banerjee for the TMC’s astounding performance in the Bengal elections and said his party will introspect the poll results.
