West Bengal Assembly polls | This is Mamata Banerjee’s victory over Modi and Shah: Derek O’ Brien

A day after the Trinamool Congress’s emphatic victory in West Bengal, senior get together chief and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien attributed the win to 10 years of Mamata Banerjee’s people-centred governance at the same time as he known as out the position of the Election Commission within the prolonged ballot schedule, alleging that guidelines had been bent to favour the BJP.

Thank You! It has solely been 12-14 hours for the reason that outcomes got here in. I haven’t sat all the way down to analyse it. But I’d say that TMC and our captain Mamata Banerjee’s proposition to the folks of Bengal was extensively accepted. And what did we are saying? Judge us on what we’ve completed within the final ten years, on what number of lives we touched. And then take a look at the opposite aspect, in any respect the unkempt guarantees made within the final 6-7 years, all bluster and lies. Every BJP hoarding, pamphlet, tv commercial had Modi’s face plastered. People have rejected Narendra Modi. This is Mamata Banerjee’s victory over Modi and Amit Shah.

In the final three phases of the Assembly elections, which coincided with the onslaught of the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, we noticed a soar within the TMC’s efficiency. Do you see a connection between the 2?

No. Look on the outcomes rigorously, TMC thrashed BJP throughout all of the phases. Nearly, all of the BJP MPs who thought they may saunter in to contest the Assembly polls right here, misplaced. The Union Minister misplaced by a margin of fifty,000 votes in an Assembly phase.

Also learn: This is victory of Bengal and solely Bengal can do it: Mamata Banerjee

Also please perceive the Election Commission deliberate the polling schedule, dividing it into eight phases to assist the BJP construct a momentum, by the point the elections attain Trinamool strongholds. The EC didn’t even care in regards to the pandemic. They bent the principles to swimsuit the BJP. For instance until now the sales space agent needed to be a resident of the realm. Instead, as a result of the BJP didn’t have an organisation, they relaxed the rule permitting anybody to turn into a sales space agent regardless of their handle. They posted central forces on the polling station who spoke in Hindi and couldn’t talk in Bangla. They modified the important thing law enforcement officials just like the DG and ADG of police as per their whims. The EC officers labored like stenographers of the BJP.

The TMC has alleged that the EC labored with a bias for BJP in these elections. Now that you’ve received, what do you propose to do about it?

No, no. EC didn’t work in a biased method. The EC is a division of the BJP! Bias is too gentle a phrase for them. All the political events want to have a look at this and we have to shield this establishment. We can not have three retired officers to run the elections of India on this method. We will get all of the events collectively demanding reforms within the functioning of EC. We want to do that for our democracy. The present scenario can’t be allowed to prevail, it is very harmful for our Republic.

The TMC’s victory in West Bengal, DMK’s victory in Tamil Nadu super-imposed in opposition to the current electoral reverses that the Congress has had in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Assam, one is compelled to ask can the Congress proceed to guide the opposition?

What the Congress must do is as much as them. I’m not ready to offer them recommendation. Our first precedence, as I stated earlier, is to give attention to find out how to sort out COVID in Bengal. Our subsequent precedence is to rebuild our crew each on the organisation degree and in authorities.

Let me reframe the query. Is Mamata Banerjee going to be the pivot of Opposition unity?

We are usually not placing up our hand like that. We need the opposite opposition events to imagine that in case you do good work over a time frame and you might have the self perception, Modi-Shah’s BJP will be defeated. They are usually not invincible.

In truth, I will even say that this is an even bigger victory than the 2011 one. In 2011, the TMC unseated a authorities that had been in energy for 34-years. So the anti-incumbency in opposition to the Left authorities additionally labored in our favour. In this election we defended our floor and our ten years of governance. And our vote proportion has solely gone up. But having stated all this, let me additionally add Mamata Banerjee was the primary chief to name out demonetisation. She stated sure to GST however identified proper on the outset that the implementation was all mistaken. She has credibility and consistency. We are a nationwide get together who is robust in a single area.

What are the nationwide implications of those elections?

A good friend of mine had despatched me a message two months in the past which aptly sums up the implication of those outcomes. He wrote, “Go, win this for ‘yourselves’. Go, win this for ‘Bengal’. Go, win this for ‘us’.”