Senior TMC leader Saket Gokhale on Tuesday said three BJP MPs from West Bengal are in touch with his party and the saffron party’s tally in Parliament will soon come down to 237. The comments drew sharp reactions from the state BJP, which dubbed the claim as “baseless” and said they stand united.
The Trinamool Congress won 29 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, reducing the BJP’s tally from 18 in 2019 to 12 this time. The saffron party faced a significant setback in the state, where it had laid special focus in the run-up to the general elections.
“As of today, the numbers in the Lok Sabha are BJP: 240 INDIA: 237. Three BJP MPs in West Bengal are in touch with us and there will be a nice surprise soon. After that, BJP: 237 INDIA: 240. Modi’s creaky coalition is a temporary structure which isn’t going to last very long,” Gokhale, a Rajya Sabha MP, posted on X.
In the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls, the BJP with 240 seats fell short of a majority but the NDA secured the mandate with 293 seats. The Congress bagged 99 seats while the INDIA bloc got 234 seats. Following the polls, two Independents who won have also pledged support to the Congress, taking the INDIA bloc tally to 236.
Reacting to Gokhale’s claim, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the TMC is “daydreaming”. “Since 2014, the TMC has been daydreaming of becoming the pivotal force in the union government but its hopes were dashed not once but thrice. The BJP and NDA stand united. No BJP MP from Bengal is in touch with the TMC,” he said.
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