Balurghat/Gangarampur (West Bengal): You thought the bitter fight for controlling the levers of power in New Delhi just got sweetened a bit Friday when Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee said the BJP will get a ‘big rosogolla’ in West Bengal once the Lok Sabha results are declared May 23.
The crux of the matter however, is that ‘rosogolla’ often indicates ‘0’ and in West Bengal it is often stated, ‘he got a rosogolla’ in maths. By ‘big rosogolla’ Banerjee meant that the BJP will not be able to win a single seat in West Bengal.
“Dilli ka laddoo jo khaya woh pachhtaya (whoever ate the laddoo of Delhi has regretted it). In 2014, they got two seats, they will get a big rosogolla this time. They will get a big zero,” Banerjee told election rallies in Balurghat and Gangarampur.
Before the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal, the Prime Minister had said at public meetings that if BJP was voted to power, people would have laddoos in both their hands in the form of the NDA government and the Centre and a BJP dispensation in the state.
Rosogolla, like laddoo in Hindi-speaking states, is often invoked in West Bengal to deride those who have flunked an examination.
Not the one who sugar-coats the bitter pills she administers to her political rivals, Banerjee claimed the BJP will not be able to get past 100 seats in the general elections. She asserted the saffron party will draw a blank in southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha.
“In Uttar Pradesh they had 73 seats. I doubt whether they will get even 13 this time,” the West Bengal Chief Minister asserted.
Hitting back at Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for his remarks that the elections will spring a surprise in West Bengal, Banerjee said, “I also say there will be surprise for them as they will get a big zero.” She also mocked Jaitley as the ‘kettle Finance Minister of the ‘chaiwala PM’.
“Five years ago he said he was a chaiwala. Now he says he is a chowkidar. After losing the elections, he will only be left with his chowki (the humble, inornate cot made of wooden planks used in eastern India),” Banerjee told the gathering who immediately broke out into a huge applause.