Twitter Erupts With Celebratory Messages on Mamata Banerjee’s Historic Win in West Bengal
- They praise election results in Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well and call out the Modi government for its mishandling of the deadly coronavirus surge that’s devastating the country.
Desi Twiterrati has been having a field day with reactions to election results in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam. While Trinamool Congress registered a landslide victory in West Bengal with Mamata Banerjee returning as chief minister for the third time; Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) won a historic second term in the state on May 2, and in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, led by M.K. Stalin overthrew the ruling AIADMK and is set to form the government with a simple majority. Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party made its way back in Assam. Puducherry too elected a coalition government led by the BJP.
Hashtags like #Didiodidi and #Durgadidi are trending on the microblogging site to hail Banerjee’s resounding victory, and celebrate the defeat of Modi’s party. The loss for BJP comes amid growing criticism of the center’s handling of the growing COVID-19 crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a lot of flak for his frequent visits to West Bengal to campaign, amid the deadly second surge, with many experts blaming BJP’s massive elections rallies and mass gatherings at the month-long Kumbh Mela in Haridwar for exacerbating the spread of the virus.
Modi himself took to Twitter to congratulate Banerjee, so did Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, despite his party being decimated in West Bengal. Among many notables, author Amitava Ghosh and professor Ashutosh Varshney also weighed in on the election results. On the other hand, BJP supporters lauded the party for prevailing in West Bengal’s Nandigram where the party’s candidate defeated Mamata Banerjee, and also decried the atrocities meted to BJP volunteers.
Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India
Rahul Gandhi, Congress party president
Kaushik Basu, economist at Cornell University
Ashutosh Varshney, Brown University professor
It is noteworthy that of the five electorally largest states of India — UP, Maharashtra, Bengal, Bihar, Tamil Nadu — only two (UP, Bihar) are in BJP’s control. Depending on what happens in UP state elections next year, the political equations can begin to change in India.
Vishal Lochab Farmer
Amitava Ghosh, writer
Ashok Swain, professor at Uppsala University in Sweden
Manpreet
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