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Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the BJP has an opportunity to supplant the Left and emerge as the principal Opposition in West Bengal.
According to him, this “historic opportunity” has arisen with the Left parties falling out of favour with the people. Politics “does not accept a vacuum” and BJP will look to fill the space.
In the city to attend the swearing-in of the Mamata Banerjee-led Cabinet in West Bengal, Jaitley said: “There is this historic opportunity (for us). Our long-term plan is to occupy the space of the Left and become the principal Opposition party in the state. The footprint has been registered by us in 2016.”
The 2011 and 2014 election results, as also the recent Assembly elections, were “not accidental verdicts” and clearly indicated the Left’s declining fortunes, the Union Finance Minister said.
In the just-concluded State polls, the BJP secured three seats while its ally, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, secured another three. In 2011, the BJP had failed to secure any seat; and in the 2014 by-elections it won one of the two seats it contested.
In Bengal, he said, the BJP got 10.8 per cent votes and received considerable voter support in 200 seats. The party got 20,000 plus votes in 101 seats, and over 10,000 votes in 190. “So in over 200 seats we have established ourselves,” he said.
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