Bengal BJP Bounces Back with Hindi Heartland Victory, Eyes 35 Lok Sabha Seats

With Sunday's victory in the Hindi heartland, the Bengal BJP branch, which has been under siege elsewhere, was in high spirits. It reiterated its commitment to secure 35 seats in the Lok Sabha for the state and said that the Mamata Banerjee administration had been overthrown too soon.

As soon as his party won in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, state BJP unit president Sukanta Majumdar said, "The election results in those three states will help our party in Bengal win 35 seats (in Lok Sabha polls)."

Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated the ambitious goal of capturing 35 of Bengal's 42 Lok Sabha seats during his rally in Birbhum's Suri on April 14.

According to a source, after Trinamul's impressive performance in the rural elections on July 8, the BJP's 35-seat narrative began to wane.

Instead of establishing a goal, Shah asked supporters to help the BJP win enough seats at his public rally on November 29 in Esplanade that Narendra Modi would have to announce at his inauguration that Bengal's contribution would allow him to serve as prime minister for a third term in a row.

On Sunday, the 35-seat story for Bengali came back.

The outcome demonstrated that Modi is still the nation's ultimate authority. Meena Devi Purohit, a BJP leader in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, expressed confidence about winning 35 seats in Bengal. She was present at the illuminated festivities held at the party headquarters at 6 Muralidhar Sen Lane. BJP officials also gave out candy and let off pyrotechnics.

Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari said that BJP MLAs will rejoice in the Assembly on Monday and asserted that his party would win all of Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

"The Modi storm was this." There will be a Modi tsunami in 2019. This (state) administration won't last till 2026, Adhikari said.