BJP should focus on saving 2 seats in WB: TMC

Hitting back at BJP president Amit Shah over his prospects of winning over 20 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Derek O' Brien on Wednesday said that the party should focus more on retaining two seats that it has in the state.

Asserting that Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were only interested in making "tall claims", O'Brien told ANI: "Instead of making tall claims about winning over 20 seats in West Bengal, BJP should try to hold on the two seats they already have, otherwise they will get zero seats like a 'rosogolla' (a Bengali sweet)".

Earlier this week, while addressing an event in Mumbai the BJP president said that the party was aiming to win 23 seats out of the 42 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had won only two seats (Asansol and Darjeeling) in the state.

Dubbing the equation between Prime Minister Modi and Shah as 'jumla jodi', O'Brien said that the numbers and figures given by the duo are 'jumla' (gimmick).

Lashing out at the BJP, the TMC leader added, "They said that Rs 15 lakh would come back into the bank accounts, it was 'jumla'. They said that two crore jobs would be created every year, that was also a 'jumla'. They also promised that farmer's income would be doubled, that was a 'jumla' as well.