New Delhi, November 11: Buyoed by results of bypolls, key winners Trinamool Congress, Congress and BSP today targetted their main political rivals while a bitter Samajwadi Party, suffering a rout in its home turf Uttar Pradesh, alleged money power and official machinery were used against it.
Main opposition BJP, which also put up a dismal show, sought to play down the outcome of byelections.
TC chief Mamata Banerjee, whose party retained five seats and wrested two from arch opponent CPI(M) in West Bengal, asked the ruling Left Front government to resign and seek a fresh mandate of the people.
Targeting CPI(M), she said “despite the goons and guns of CPI(M), we won. CPI(M) should learn from the results.”
Congress too asked Left parties, which suffered debacle in Kerala and West Bengal, and Samajwadi Party to take lessons from the results and claimed its victory in Firozabad Lok Sabha constituency signals the return of the people’s faith in the party.
“Samajwadi Party should think seriously and take lessons from the defeat…Left has met the same fate in West Bengal and Kerala as SP in UP. This (defeat of Left) is a reaction to the disorder they had created in the state,” AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters here.
Bahujan Samaj Party supremo and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati said her party’s spectacular show in the assembly bypolls in the state showed the people had “rejected the negative campaign” of opposition parties.
“The results showed people have rejected opposition parties, especially the SP and the BJP,” Mayawati said said in a statement in Lucknow after BSP romped home in nine assembly constituencies, wresting five of them from its arch-foe Samajwadi Party.
She claimed Congress’ win in Firozabad was an outcome of “people’s resentment against dynastic politics pursued by SP” and charged BJP had a tacit understanding with Congress transferring its votes to the latter in Lucknow (West) assembly constituency and Firozabad to defeat BSP.
Congress also charged SP with promoting dyanstic politics with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh saying the result in Firozabad as “a trend against dynastic politics of Samajwadi Party in the state”.
“There is a trend against dynastic politics as Firozabad shows… There is a limit to dynasticism. The fact that someone from Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family has been defeated there shows this and the achievement of Congress should not be undermined,” Singh said.
Mulayam Singh Yadav alleged in Varanasi that money power and the administrative machinery were “used against us”.
“It is the people’s verdict and we have to accept it as such. In a democracy, the people are the masters and their verdict has to be accepted as such. We have accepted our defeat but money power and the power of the government has been used against us”, Yadav told reporters.
His party colleague Amar Singh credited Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his “hard work” during campaign for Congress’ win in Firozabad.
–Agencies