Bihar results will have zero impact on Bengal polls: TMC
Times of India | 15 November 2025
Kolkata: The Bihar poll results "will have zero impact in Bengal", Trinamool said on Friday, questioning Congress's "lack of performance" to lead the INDIA bloc and taking a dig at Prashant Kishor, saying the poll strategist was a "kishore (minor) in real political battlegrounds".
Trinamool added that the NDA's women-centric schemes that gained poll dividends in Bihar were "only a photocopy", while Bengal "has the original in CM Mamata Banerjee", whose social and economic schemes in Bengal were initially ridiculed by BJP but were now being copied across India.
Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said: "Whatever be the outcome of Bihar polls, why are BJP netas distributing laddoos in Bengal? Bel pakle kaker ki (a Bengali idiom loosely translated to mean it's irrelevant).
This will have zero impact on Bengal polls. Trinamool was here, will remain here and Mamata Banerjee will be CM for the fourth time in Bengal with 250+ seats."
Citing Congress's "repeated failures", Ghosh said: "In Bihar, Congress was a key component of the combined opposition against BJP. A party which contested 61 seats in Bihar is now leading in only two. This is a below-four strike rate."
"Wherever across the country Congress is tasked with the responsibility to fight BJP, they have literally failed everywhere… instead, BJP has gained.
On the other hand, BJP's grand posturing has stopped at Bengal's borders. Because Bengal is home to Bengal tigress Mamata Banerjee," he added.
Asked if this result would impact the INDIA bloc, Ghosh said: "That is for my leadership to analyse and comment on. Bengal has, in election after election, sent out the message that Mamata needs to be the pivot of all anti-BJP forces."
Attacking state leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari for distributing sweets outside the Bengal assembly to "celebrate the Bihar win", Ghosh said: "The celebrations for them will be outside the assembly, for, inside the assembly, they will have nobody to celebrate with."
"BJP will not even get 50 seats in Bengal, and if they get fewer, around 30, we suspect that Adhikari may no longer be the leader of the opposition (after 2026). The leads they (BJP) took in Bihar will be trails in Bengal," Ghosh said.
Elaborating on the reasons, Ghosh said "Bihar's poll factors are completely different from Bengal". "Here, people have benefited from a stable administration and got meaningful work. Bengal BJP, on the other hand, has denied people even their rightful dues. They attacked Bengal, insulted Bengali-speaking people and even assaulted migrants. Bengalis who are Indians have been branded as Bangladeshis. People here believe BJP is not their friend but a foe.