Bihar verdict: Mamata Banerjee smiles; Left, Congress too have reasons to cheer

KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress is visibly happy over the Bihar assembly verdict though it did not see the BJP posing a major challenge to it in next year’s assembly polls but there are reasons for the Left Front and the Congress to cheer too.

CM Mamata Banerjee, who has already sounded bugle for next year’s assembly polls with her consecutive public meetings in districts, got her election pitch right. Banerjee was quick to pick the ‘intolerance’ issue to say that her party would never dictate "what to eat and what to wear.” She was one of the first to congratulate the victors in Bihar: "Congratulations Nitish Kumarji, Laluji & your full team... Victory of tolerance, defeat of intolerance,” Mamata Banerjee tweeted.

Significantly, the Bihar results bring to light another facet of political equations. In Bengal, opposition parties CPM and Congress have a joint vote share of around 40% and may pose a greater challenge to the Trinamool. Both the parties are back to the drawing board. The next big calculation is to figure out a strategy to regain the support base they lost to BJP in 2014. With BJP’s Bengal unit’s morale at a new low, Left and Congress may contemplate to form a combined force against Trinamool.

"The success of Lalu-Nitish has established that the united opposition can sort out any friction. Here, the challenge is to dislodge TMC. So, we can use the Bihar model,” said Om Prakash Mishra, PCC general secretary, explaining the Bihar results and its effect on Bengal politics.