Kolkata, April 26 (IANS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Union Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday claimed that Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has “accepted that the BJP will emerge victorious” in the West Bengal Assembly polls.

Irani was referring to LoP Gandhi’s video message on X, shared a few days back, where he had said: “If Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had run a clean government and had not polarised Bengal, then the BJP would not have got a chance to make inroads into Bengal.”

Speaking to IANS, she said, “I will only say that Rahul Gandhi himself has accepted that in this election, a Bharatiya Janata Party government is going to be formed in West Bengal. And the reason behind the formation of the BJP government is only one—Mamata Banerjee’s misgovernance.”

Separately, while addressing a campaign rally at Sreerampore a day before, Gandhi had alleged that Prime Minister Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister had a clandestine arrangement, because of which there had not been a single case filed against her.

Smriti Irani, who has been campaigning in the state for the second phase of polling on April 29, called out the Opposition’s arrangement of fighting against each other at the state-level, despite forming an alliance at the Centre.

The Congress and the Trinamool Congress are INDIA bloc partners, but are contesting separately in the Bengal polls.

“It is an old method of the Congress and it’s associate parties to forge an alliance at the Centre and contest separately in the state elections,” she said.

Notably, the CPI-M too had contested separately in the recently conducted Kerala Assembly polls, despite being a part of the INDIA bloc.

Also, reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s tweet on the alleged murder of a Congress worker in Bengal, Irani said, “Then why does he support the Trinamool?”

In a post on X, Gandhi had said: “The murder of Congress worker Debdeep Chatterjee by TMC-affiliated thugs after the elections is utterly reprehensible. My deepest condolences to the grieving family. In West Bengal today, it is not democracy but TMC’s reign of terror that prevails. Intimidating, attacking, and eliminating opposing voices after votes are cast — this has become the defining character of TMC.”

–IANS

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