KOLKATA: Dismissing the exit poll predictions, the Trinamool said on Monday that its internal reports from districts and from every constituency said the party would win the Lok Sabha elections comfortably.
Trinamool general secretary Partha Chatterjee said the party was not worried about the exit poll projections and would win again.
However, a district level Trinamool leader said, “We don’t know whether these exit poll predictions will match with the actual results. But, there has been an undercurrent against us this time. Now everything will be clear only on May 23.”
A buoyant state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said: “Trinamool has lost the battle and Mamata should stop dreaming of becoming next PM”. He claimed he was already receiving calls from opposition leaders.
“Though they haven’t yet expressed the desire to join the BJP…anyone can guess the reason for making such calls,” he said.
Political analysts observed that if the trends of the exit poll are true, Trinamool’s hegemony in Bengal is now under question.
The BJP has made heavy inroads in Mamata’s bastion and is ready for another and more challenging battle two years from now, when the state will head for Assembly polls.In BJP’s ascendance, they see a parallel to Trinamool’s own rise ten years ago when, in alliance with the Congress, it breached the Left bastion.
“The Left started losing ground since 2009 because of hooliganism by its activists. This support base joined the Trinamool later as they found it a better forum to continue their activities. Mamata never tried to curb their wrongdoings,” said Swapan Pramanik, a retired professor of sociology.
BJP supporters caught in post-poll violence
More than a dozen people have been injured in sporadic incidents of post-poll violence in south Bengal since Sunday night.
Houses were ransacked, bombs hurled and families were driven out of their homes after the central police forces personnel left.
Alleged Trinamool supporters stormed a BJP worker’s house in Dum Dum and assaulted his father.