While Congress has emerged as a loser in Uttar Pradesh, the other loser in the 2022 Assembly Elections is perhaps Mamata Banerjee, even though elections were not being held in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee had declared her party’s intentions in Goa with much aplomb, however, according to the latest trends, TMC is scoring a big fat zero in the state.
According to the EC website, TMC is not leading even in a single seat.
Goa was being treated as an experimental ground for Mamata Banerjee to catapult herself to national politics. It was a ground where if she could make inroads, she would know that she has acceptability outside of West Bengal and therefore, could juxtapose herself as the PM candidate of the opposition parties.
In fact, the plan was clear when ahead of the Goa elections, Mamata Banerjee attempted to sideline Congress as the face of the opposition to prop herself. Shiv Sena had taken a contrarian view and said that there could be no opposition front without Congress. In fact, Mamata Banerjee had even called for a meeting of non-NDA CMs to forge a national alliance, leaving the Congress party out.
Mamata Banerjee had spoken about trying to stop the Hindu vote from consolidating in Goa and had also gone on a temple run in Goa where she was seen throwing Charnamrit away at Goa’s famous Mangueshi temple.
Despite her and her party member’s toughest efforts, it is safe to say that TMC has suffered a humiliating and crushing defeat in Goa.
In Uttar Pradesh, Mamata Banerjee’s campaign hardly bore fruit, given that Yogi Adityanath is still returning to power with a thumping majority and TMC did not contest a single seat in UP.
With Mamata Banerjee crashing and burning in her attempt to elevate herself to not just national politics but also project herself as the contender to PM Modi using these elections in Goa and Uttar Pradesh, it remains to be seen what her role would be outside of West Bengal. With AAP sweeping Punjab, it would seem more likely that Arvind Kejriwal would effectively usurp the position that Mamata Banerjee wished to reserve for herself.
