Mamata undermining people's electoral choice; failed to build consensus as opposition's PM nominee: BJP

NEW DELHI: TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee is undermining the electoral choices of the people by questioning the mandate of the assembly elections, BJP IT-Cell head Amit

Malviya

said on Friday as he hit back at the West Bengal chief minister over her remarks about the BJP.

Reiterating her call for an opposition alliance to defeat the BJP, Banerjee said the victory in assembly elections in four states is not a true reflection of the people's mandate and accused the saffron camp of looting votes by using the election machinery.

The polls' results were announced on Thursday and the BJP won Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Manipur, while in Goa, it on its own has touched the halfway mark. Punjab was won by the Aam Aadmi Party.

Malviya said that despite repeated attempts, Banerjee has failed to build consensus around her name as a putative prime ministerial candidate of the opposition.

Referring to the violence after the West Bengal assembly polls last year, Malviya, who is the BJP's co-incharge for the state, said Banerjee must reflect on her own track record as chief minister and home minister of Bengal.

She presided over the "most horrific post-poll violence" in the history of independent India immediately after the state's assembly election results in May 2021, he said.

"Calling an overwhelming mandate in favour for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh and other states as not being reflective of the people's mandate, is undermining the electoral choices of the people," Malviya said.

Talking about Banerjee's aspirations, Malviya said, "She has failed to build consensus around her name as putative prime ministerial candidate of the opposition."

"She must ask if other aspirants like AAP, TRS and NCP see her as someone who can be the focal point of such a formation, minus the Congress," Malviya asked, wondering whether these outfits have any other vision for the country except grabbing power by any means.

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