Kolkata: With BJP trying to gain momentum as third force ahead of the next year’s polls in West Bengal, arch political rivals – CPI-M and TMC – today congratulated the grand alliance in Bihar for its ‘massive’ victory in the assembly elections and claimed the Modi wave was on the wane as the real “achhe din” had begun for the people of India.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee termed the victory of the grand alliance as a defeat of “intolerance”.
“Congratulations @NitishKumar ji, Lalu ji & your full team. And all my Bihar brothers & sisters. Victory of tolerance, defeat of intolerance,” Mamata wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said, “We congratulate the people of Bihar and also the grand alliance for their landmark victory. Achhe din has finally begun for the people.
“The Modi wave had already halted in Delhi, yesterday in Kerala and now in Bihar,” he said adding that it was dubbed as a tsunami but it only succeeded in bringing destruction.
Yechury said that since 2014 the BJP was working against the secular democratic structure of the country and now their campaign had backfired in Bihar.
TMC national spokesperson and MP Derek O’ Brien said in a statement, “BJP lost. India won. BJP lost. India saved Nitish, Mamata, Arvind and a few others already working in great cohesion inside and outside Parliament for a while now.”
“This bond will now strengthen and more parties will join,” he added.
The TMC and CPI(M) congratulating the grand alliance in Bihar comes at a point of time when the BJP in West Bengal is trying to gain momentum as third force ahead of the next year’s assembly polls.
“BJP was thinking big ahead of Bihar polls. They were thinking they will win the polls in Bengal too. But the result hopefully will teach them a lesson,” a TMC leader said.
A senior state BJP leader, however, said the results in Bihar would not have any impact in West Bengal.
State BJP president Rahul Sinha did not wish to make any comment.