The 'Modi wave' may not have swept over West Bengal, but the BJP, enthused at winning two Lok Sabha seats on Friday said, it will now prepare for the 2016 Assembly elections by strengthening the party base in the state capitalising on the performance. However, the party said the result was not the true reflection of the political picture of the state where, it alleged, the ruling Trinamool Congress in mass scale rigging and looting of booths. “Just like the panchayat elections, the Lok Sabha elections too were widely rigged by the TMC. This election was managed more by the TMC than by the chief election commissioner, V S Sampath. Had the votes not been looted, we would have got far more votes,” said Rahul Sinha, state BJP chief. Stating that the party will write to the Election Commission of India demanding a probe into the role of special observer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, Sinha said TMC was leading in state due to mass-scale rigging and division of anti-TMC votes between opposition parties. “Half of the success it has got is because of the terror, rigging and booth capturing and the rest is because of the division of votes of opposition parties. If we had an organisation like CPI(M) we could have delivered much much better,” he said. Sinha said they have convened a meeting of the state BJP leadership on Saturday in which they will decide our future course of action. Sinha termed the Left Front leaderless and directionless. “People have abandoned the Left because they realised that it was not in a position to give them anything,” he said. Asked if Narendra Modi cabinet will have a minister from Bengal, he said, “It is up to the central committee to decide”. Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Siddharth Nath Singh said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee needed to understand the mood of Bengal voters. "They have voted for the BJP for its good governance and development and have warned her not to follow vote bank politics. In any case, the 2016 Assembly polls will be fought on the TMC versus BJP plank," he added.
