Rahul Gandhi wishes Mamata on 'defeating BJP in Bengal' as Congress fails to win a seat

Inspite of failing to win a single seat in Bengal, ex-Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, congratulated Mamata Banerjee for defeating BJP and retaining Bengal. Gandhi, whose party had allied with CPI(M), CPI and ISF to contest on all 292 seats, had campaigned sparsely in Bengal to avoid being seen with Left leaders keeping Kerala in mind. Currently, TMC has leads in 214 seats while BJP has leads in 76 seats. 

Rahul wishes Mamata

The Congress-Left-ISF had decided that Congress will contest on 92 seats, Left 165 seats and ISF 37 seats. Inspite of ISF eyeing the high-stakes Nandigram seat which will see Mamata Banerjee taken on former aide Suvendu Adhikari, the Left Front fielded Minakshi Mukherjee. While Congress allied with the Left in its bid to end Mamata Banerjee's 10-year term and fight an emerging BJP in Bengal, Congress is the prime opponent against the Left government in Kerala. While it failed to win a single seat in Bengal, Congress also failed to stop Left from storming Kerala - creating history as Pinarayi Vijayan was awarded a second term.

The Nandigram battle

In a bid to protect her home-turf, Mamata Banerjee had battled BJP's Suvendu Adhikari in the place which had catapulted Mamata Banerjee into the CM post in 2011. Miffed by the rising influence of Banerjee's nephew - Abhishek Banerjee and IPAC poll strategist Prashant Kishor in Trinamool, Adhikari along with several other MLAs had switched to BJP. Taking the battle head-on, Banerjee had announced she will contest polls from Nandigram instead of her bastion Bhowanipore, leading to BJP fielding Adhikari.

While Nandigram is a Trinamool bastion, it is the Adhikari family - Sisir, Suvendu, Dibyendu and Soumendu which has massive sway in the district - setting up a Mamata Vs Adhikari family battle. Amid the farmers' protest too, the Nandigram land agitation has come to the forefront, with Mamata accusing BJP of 'selling off farmers' lands to businessmen'. Exit polls too predicted a close battle with the verdict going either way.

The Nandigram poll battle saw the most high-voltage campaign as Mamata played her 'Bengal's daughter' card, while Suvendu has accused TMC of only 'promoting the nephew'. Mamata, who recently suffered an injury while campaigning in Nandigram - which she has blamed on BJP, has vowed to conduct her campaign on a wheelchair with the BJP calling it 'sympathy politics'. Mamata has also termed Adhikaris as 'Mir Jafars' while Suvendu has fearmongered that 'Bengal will become mini-Pakistan' if Mamata is re-elected.