TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien who in the past had defamed twitter users in the upper house has now managed to get lampooned by users of the microblogging platform, Twitter. Merely days after the BJP, not only notched a historic victory in Tripura and Nagaland but also managed to stitch together an alliance in Meghalaya despite Congress being the single largest party, Derek was quoted by the ANI as saying that TMC and all other opposition parties had taken up a challenge to dethrone PM Modi in 2019:
PM Narendra Modi will deliver his last speech as Prime Minister from ramparts of Red Fort on 15 Aug 2018. Writing is on the wall. In 2019, he will not deliver that speech in Red Fort. This is our challenge on behalf of TMC and all the opposition parties: Derek O’Brien, MP TMC pic.twitter.com/M2nM64vF3N
— ANI (@ANI) March 4, 2018
As seen above, he is quoted as claiming that PM Modi would deliver his final Red Fort speech in 2018 and owing to the “writing on the wall” insinuated that Modi won’t be the PM for a second term in 2019. This he claimed was a challenge taken up by the TMC and all other opposition parties.
Such a statement which came merely a day after the BJP asserted its dominance in the North-Eastern politics, puzzled various twitter users considering the saffron party looks stronger than it has ever before.
Some Twitter users decided to outright accept the challenge:
When politicians like u @derekobrienmp make a challenge, I take it up and with my conviction throw the same challenge on behalf of all my fellow voters of my country – We will re elect @narendramodi as our PM in 2019, and will show u the might of democracy.
— ஸ்ரீகுமார் (@KannanSrikumar) March 4, 2018
We all remember, the similar statement made by Scamgress Mani shankar ayyar, what happened? Don’t Worry, we all are here
— Rupesh Patil (@rvpatil29) March 5, 2018
Challenge accepted https://t.co/klQUAtnOUH
— Rishi Bagree ?? (@rishibagree) March 5, 2018
A few proceeded to lampoon him for his statement:
Dear friend Derek is smartest guy to challenge Modi for 2019. He will not repeat the mistake that some friends here on social media committed in 2014. Neither he sports any mustache to start with, nor will he offer to run naked on Rajpath if he loses the challenge. No way. ? https://t.co/JexUUI3XKC
— Yashwant Deshmukh (@YRDeshmukh) March 5, 2018
This man is too keen to see Yogi as the PM https://t.co/9KOaSVKXYg
— Ra_Bies (@Ra_Bies) March 5, 2018
Congress mocked Modi by trending #FekuFort in 2013, Derek doing the same. Result will be the same too. https://t.co/pEtRmKtVJT
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) March 5, 2018
Sir @derekobrienmp can you tweet this prediction from your Twitter handle please? Will be much better to screenshot the tweet from the original person rather than a media handle. https://t.co/eF9ok4UrfA
— Raju Das | ৰাজু দাস (@rajudasonline) March 5, 2018
With the communist bastion of Tripura falling on Saturday, the major state’s which continue to remain fiercely anti-BJP are Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal. This raises the question whether TMC and others have indeed decided to step up their game to try and halt the BJP juggernaut or whether Derek’s statement is merely an effort to try and sooth the jittery nerves of the opposition.