00:00I want to cut across to Bharatiya Janata Party's
00:03co-incharge of Bengal, Amit Malviya,
00:07heading the IT cell of the BJP, the communication of the BJP.
00:11Amit Malviya, welcome.
00:14Explain this victory, sir.
00:16BJP leading in two or seven of the 293 seats.
00:21Many had described this as mission impossible.
00:24What led to this?
00:26Sarul, I think this is an important moment.
00:30One that will go down in history,
00:32it's after 79 years of independence
00:35that West Bengal will have a BJP government.
00:39And with a BJP government at the center,
00:42we're looking at a new tone for the state.
00:45Having said that, I want to put on record
00:48the visionary leadership provided by Prime Minister Modi
00:53and Prime Minister Shah,
00:57earlier President J.P. Nada and now Mr. J.P. Nabeen,
01:01the relentless work over almost a decade to make this possible.
01:06And of course, last but not the least, the people of Bengal
01:09who have voted for change in such a decisive manner.
01:12You asked me, what is it that led to such an overwhelming mandate?
01:17I think we saw it coming.
01:19Given the kind of government that Pranamul was running here in the state,
01:25there was nothing that would remind you of the semblance of governance.
01:31Law and order was a big issue.
01:34Illegal infiltration.
01:35Crime against women.
01:37Lack of employment opportunities.
01:40Lack of investment.
01:42Lack of infrastructure.
01:44And I can just go on and on.
01:46So, what was the biggest lesson from the 2021
01:51within the BJP?
01:52It was seen as a debacle by many.
01:54Though the BJP had risen from 0 to 44 to 77.
01:58Many said that was a great achievement.
02:00But others said it had fallen far short in 2021.
02:03And then the targeting of BJP karekartas.
02:07You know, the crimes that had taken place including against women.
02:11What were lessons learned from 2021 and to 2026?
02:16You know, what followed was the result of 2021 was very unfortunate.
02:21It's a blot on our democracy.
02:25And Mantha Banerjee will carry the weight of that episode,
02:29which is fresh in everyone's mind here in Bengal.
02:32And that is why, despite all the threats and intimidation,
02:36people of Bengal have voted the Trinamul regime out.
02:40Having said that, what are the lessons that we learned?
02:42Well, you know, as a political party, it's important for us to listen to the voices in the ground.
02:47And I think it always takes a certain amount of time for an idea or a force to come to
02:53fruition.
02:54And I think that is really what is leading to this kind of a decisive mandate.
02:59I guess the people of Bengal realize that if they have to be part of the mainstream, they have to
03:06be part of the development journey that India is seeing,
03:10they must sort of elect a government that is sensitive to their aspirations.
03:15And that is really why you see a 207.
03:19I mean, it's two third majority for the party, which has not been in power ever in the state.
03:25This has put a lot of onus on us, a great sense of responsibility,
03:31responsibility that we have to carry with us long in the years ahead.
03:37But we're looking forward to it.
03:40And I can assure you that we will ensure that Bengal attains the same glory that it was once known
03:48for.
03:49The bad memories of Mamta's 15 years and left before that are erased completely.
03:55So tell me this, Mamta Banerjee just till a couple of hours ago was saying,
04:00her votes are being looted and she rushed to the counting centre.
04:04As of now, Shubhendu Adhikari is leading with a very slender margin of some 563 odd votes.
04:10Now, how would you respond to these allegations of vote-chori where Mamta Banerjee and her party say
04:16that they were battling not just the Bharatiya Janata party but also the election commission and 2,35,000 Central
04:22Armed Police Force personnel?
04:26The SIR first. There were 12 states and union territories where the SIR process was going on,
04:33including Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which are governed by opposition parties.
04:38It is only in West Bengal that Mamta Banerjee seemed to have a problem with the process.
04:44She went to the court repeatedly and eventually the SIR process was done
04:50under the oversight of the Calcutta High Court under the instructions of Supreme Court.
04:56So she cannot blame anyone for the SIR process,
04:59neither the election commission nor the BJP as she has been doing,
05:04because the entire process was under judicial oversight.
05:08There were judicial officers who looked at the pendency
05:11and the number of people who were eventually struck out were through a judicial process.
05:17Therefore, if in any state the SIR remains unquestionable, then it is West Bengal,
05:24because it wasn't even the election commission that was responsible for the final cleanup of the roles that followed.
05:33Having said that, the question that one really needs to ask is that why was Mamta Banerjee so perturbed about
05:41the SIR?
05:42After all, it's not an activity that has happened for the first time.
05:46It's a constitutional mandate that the election commission has.
05:48The country has seen almost 13 SIRs in the past,
05:50and therefore there should have been no reason for Mamta Banerjee to repeatedly question the process
05:57and try to manipulate it or impede it.
06:00But I'm glad that she took the path that she did.
06:03She went to the Supreme Court.
06:04The Supreme Court ensured judicial oversight.
06:08Coming to the second question about the deployment of central paramilitary forces in large numbers.
06:14That's a telling account of the law and order situation in West Bengal.
06:20If Mamta Banerjee had ensured that the goons did not rule the roost,
06:25and that people were free to exercise their franchise,
06:29perhaps the election commission would not have had to put in this kind of deployment.
06:32After all, they did not do that in Tamil Nadu.
06:34They did not do that in Kerala.
06:36And these are both opposition rule states,
06:39and the BJP was fighting elections with equal ferocity in these states as well.
06:43Mr. Malwia, how would you respond to those who say that BJP resorted to communal politics,
06:49they resorted to Hindu-Muslim politics to win these elections?
06:55I mean, if Mamta Banerjee lost this election,
07:03one of the reasons was that the Hindus of Bengal felt like second-grade citizens.
07:08This was the mandate against Mamta Banerjee's appeasement politics.
07:12People of West Bengal and the Hindus in particular just voted her out.
07:16This kind of consolidation is unprecedented.
07:19I think it's time that you stop blaming the BJP for communal politics
07:24because the country has now recognized who is the communal force in this country.
07:29And clearly, if the people are voting for us the way they are,
07:34then clearly there is something flawed with this narrative.
07:36And there is a big lesson for these so-called secular parties to learn from the defeat
07:43that Mamta Banerjee has been just dished out of.
07:47But it's also a lesson for everyone who has taken the Hindus of this country
07:52as second-grade citizens for the longest time.
07:55Secularism does not mean appeasement of Muslims and putting down the Hindus,
08:00unless the comment section of the media, the political parties, particularly those who are in opposition,
08:07do not realize this. They will be reconciled.
08:11I mean, they will be sort of apt to reconcile with the fact that they will be out of power
08:15for a very, very long time in this country.
08:18So, tell me this, you know, the Prime Minister said Ganga flows, Ma Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal,
08:28and that victory from Uttarakhand through Uttar Pradesh through Bihar, now Bengal.
08:33In your view, will this also impact the upcoming elections in Uttar Pradesh?
08:42Look, what we have to really understand is that every mandate adds to the Vartijanta Party's credibility.
08:51One of the reasons why the Tribunal has been voted out decisively is because a large number of people work
08:59as migrant laborers
09:01and even, you know, professionals who have to seek opportunities elsewhere,
09:06they realize that every state where the BJP is in power, whether it is in Maharashtra, whether it is Uttar
09:12Pradesh,
09:13whether it is Haryana, whether it is any other part of the country, there is governance, there's a definitive vision
09:22that the party has for that state.
09:24There are opportunities, and they obviously felt bad because there weren't similar opportunities in Bengal for them.
09:31So, that is also the reason why a very large number of people actually voted trains and flights and got
09:40back to Bengal to vote.
09:41And that should tell you that today, states are no more isolated, people are mobile across the country.
09:49So, yes, of course, to answer your question, the victory of Bengal will have impact not just in Uttar Pradesh,
09:56but in several other states which will go to elections between now and 2029.
10:00And what we must also recognize is that West Bengal will now pave the way for the victory in 2029
10:08because there are 42 looks of our seats and I am reasonably confident that we win as many as 40
10:13in 2029 from this state.
10:16So, of course, this will have huge impact on the national politics, it will have huge impact on the things
10:22that are going towards elections.
10:24That's a very interesting line that you give us that, you know, you hope to win 40 seats in the
10:31upcoming in 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
10:34But tell me this, sir, who will be Chief Minister of Bengal? Will it be Shwendo Adhikari?
10:41We'll let you know when we make that decision. And of course, you, as in the media, will be part
10:47of the process.
10:47But allow us that liberty to decide, you know, through our platforms and through our processes that, of course, are
10:56followed in every democratic party.
10:59Mr. Malviya, you were based out of Bengal and, you know, past elections.
11:04Tell us three things that the Bharatiya Janata Party did to ensure that it crossed the 148 mark this time.
11:11What did you do differently compared to past elections where sometimes, I mean, you rose in every election, your vote
11:17share rose.
11:18But it was thus far, you know, so near and yet so far. What did the BJP do differently this
11:24time?
11:27Again, the BJP is not new to electioneering. I mean, there is a set of activities that the BJP does.
11:33But of course, what really worked in our favor this time, and if you like, what we did differently, is
11:42that we made a much bigger effort to sort of communicate what we intended to do with the state if
11:52we were given an opportunity.
11:53We successfully highlighted the failures of the Trinambul government.
11:59And I think somewhere over the last five years, we were able to convince the people of Bengal that given
12:06an opportunity, the BJP will do a stellar job of the state.
12:09And people believe in Prime Minister Modi. They just know that with him at the center and a BJP government
12:18in the state, a lot will change in the state as fortunes will take a big swing.
12:23And I think that's really worked in our favor. Of course, we've done a lot of things, and that's a
12:28lot of detail.
12:29Perhaps we will need a far longer discussion to outline everything that we did.
12:36But yes, we did a lot of things. We did them right, and we ensured that we had the mandate
12:42of the people.
12:44Perhaps I'll have you on the Chakraview podcast to talk about that in greater detail.
12:48Amit Malviya, for joining me here on India First, many thanks.
12:53Congratulations on the BJP's spectacular and unprecedented victory in Bengal.
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