Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee, took a dig at the Congress on Saturday for its embarrassing defeat in the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council (NCHAC) in Assam's Dima Hasao district. Banerjee, while slamming the grand old party, said that their seat share goals in Bengal were taking to aiming for the 'stars', especially after being unsuccessful in holding their ground in their own 'backyard'.
The TMC leader, through his 'X' account, said, "Despite contesting NCHAC elections for the first time, @AITC4Assam managed a higher vote share than INC, the primary opposition."
He further stated, "One might say their seat share aspirations in Bengal are akin to aiming for the stars when they couldn't quite grasp the ground in their own backyard!"
According to ANI, the BJP won 25 seats in the 30-member council elections and retained power in the North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council in Dima Hsao district, Assam, with an overall vote share of 55.52%. Congress, on the other hand, only had a vote share of 8.87%. TMC, which was a first-time contestant in the NCHAC polls, bagged 7.63%.
North Cachar Hills Autonomous Council has 30 members of whom 28 are elected and two are nominated.
The counting of votes began at 8 a.m. on Friday, and the results were out by late night. Post the declaration of the results by the Assam State Election Commission, the BJP won 25 council seats out of 30. While six of these seats were uncontested, three were won by independent candidates, reported ANI.
TMC, a member of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, has reportedly proposed two in West Bengal to the Congress out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats for the upcoming 2024 elections. The latter is, however, said to be unhappy with this proposal and expects to contest more constituencies.
The previous Lok Sabha polls saw a surprising 18-seat win for BJP and a 22-seat win for TMC. Congress only won the remaining two seats back then.
A virtual meeting of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc was conducted on Saturday. It was attended by major opposition leaders, but Uddhav Thackeray, Mamata Banerjee, and Akhilesh Yadav did not take part in it.
The meeting was concluded with Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress President, being 'unanimously' elected as the chairperson of the alliance. Nitish Kumar, Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal (United) national president, was also offered to become the convenor of the alliance. He turned down the proposal for the same. More On It:
After the virtual meeting, its newly appointed chairperson, Kharge, stated that the seat-sharing meetings are progressing in a positive direction.