Union minister Smriti Irani has said that the coming together of opposition parties against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a “backhanded compliment” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Union Minister of Textiles, Smriti Irani, said that opposition parties such as Congress were struggling for survival.
“They (opposition parties) are struggling for survival. The coming together of several parties against the BJP is a backhanded compliment to Prime Minister Modi, which shows that they can't win on their own,” said Smriti Irani on opposition parties making attempts to form an alliance against the BJP in the 2019 general elections.
The former HRD minister also hit out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal, calling it “a part of consolidated opposition which is fighting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
“As a result, they are indulging in targeted killings of BJP workers. The government in West Bengal has failed to maintain law and order & isn't able to deliver justice to families of victims,” she the Union minister.
This comes just two days after the BJP failed to perform well in byelections held for four Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats. While the opposition parties managed to defeat the BJP in two out of four Lok Sabha seats, they also wrested nine of the 10 Assembly seats.
The BJP failed to win on Uttar Pradesh’s Kairana and Bhandara-Gondia Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra. The party, however, managed to bag the Palghar seat in Maharashtra while its ally NDPP won the Nagaland seat.
Of the 10 Assembly seats that went for byelections, the BJP could win just Tharali seat in Uttarakhand. Apart from the seats that went for byelections, the Congress party emerged victorious in RR Nagar Assembly constituency in Karnataka.
Following the byelection results, while the opposition said that the results showed the “beginning of BJP’s end”, the ruling party conceded that it needed to contemplate on the results, propelled apparently by united opposition.
(With ANI inputs)
