Gujarat election result will not impact 2024 LS polls in Bengal: TMC

Ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal on Thursday asserted that the BJP's landslide victory in Gujarat assembly elections will not have any impact on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the eastern state.

The Mamata Banerjee-led party, however, said it will analyse the results of the assembly polls that went in favour of the saffron party.

The party, on the other hand, claimed that Congress victory in Himachal Pradesh assembly elections showed people's desire for change in government every five years.

Opposition BJP in West Bengal, however, said that Gujarat poll result showed anti-incumbency did not work in the western state as people reaffirmed their faith in the "Gujarat model of development", while saying that the setback in Himachal Pradesh will be introspected.

Tapas Roy, TMC deputy chief whip in West Bengal Assembly, told PTI, "The people of Gujarat have again voted in favour of the BJP. We will have to analyse the factors and reasons behind the verdict. However, this result will not have any impact on the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in our state."

He said that the results in the hill state are, however, on expected lines.

BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra said that anti-incumbency factor does not work in Gujarat.

"Gujarat and BJP are synonymous. The trust of the people of the western state on the saffron party remains undented because of economic growth and high HDI. West Bengal should be turned into Gujarat for its own benefit," Hazra said.

He said Gujarat did not witness any major incident during the polls, unlike West Bengal where not a single phase during the 2021 assembly elections was free from incidents of violence.

The BJP leader said that the assembly election result in the western state shows that "democracy really prevails in states such as Gujarat".

On the party's electoral defeat in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP national secretary said that an organisational meeting will soon be held to assess the reasons behind the setback.

The BJP was on Thursday poised for a landslide victory in Gujarat to retain power for a record seventh straight term but was behind the Congress in Himachal Pradesh which could go with the trend of alternative governments in the hill state.

After the first four hours of counting of votes in the assembly elections in the BJP-ruled states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, early trends showed that the saffron party, with a vote share of nearly 54 per cent, was ahead in 152 out of 182 seats in the western state and could surpass its previous best showing of 127 seats in 2002 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister.

Congress holds the all-time record of 149 seats that it had won in 1985 under the leadership of Madhavsinh Solanki.

With its expected huge victory in the home state of Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the BJP, which focused on the development agenda, was set to equal Left Front's feat of seven consecutive terms in West Bengal.

The CPI(M)-led Left Front ruled the eastern state for 34 years from 1977 to 2011.