Prime Minister Narendra Modi is known to send political messages through his attire choices. On Monday, after the BJP’s historic landslide in Bengal, the 75-year-old arrived at the BJP headquarters in Delhi wearing a dhoti-kurta in Bengali style. He sported a white kurta (panjabi in Bangla) and a Tussar silk dhoti (dhuti in Bangla) with red hemline, a traditional attire that Bengali men wear. Not only that, he also got the nuance right by tucking the end of the dhoti inside his kurta pocket as Bengali men do. A scarf around his neck was also a nod to the Bengali culture as the fabric was cotton and had ‘buti design (dotted-like designs)’ that are traditional in the state.
PM Modi commended the record-breaking voter turnout in Bengal, which was the highest in any Indian state since independence. He also congratulated the ground-level BJP workers, saying no matter how big or small they are, their contributions have been “remarkable and extraordinary”. “You have created a new history,” he added.
PM Modi also recalled his noteworthy speech in November last year after the NDA landslide in Bihar, in which he said that the Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal. “From Gangotri to Gangasagar, the lotus has bloomed everywhere, in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and now West Bengal. Today, in the states situated along the banks of the Ganga, there are BJP-NDA governments,” he said.
The BJP gathering, meanwhile, in Delhi reeked of Bengali essence. Conch shells were played, and the Prime Minister also spoke a line in Bangla, saying “poriboton hoyegeche (change has happened).”
The party, which has struggled immensely to make any impact in Bengal for years, has now taken the state in a stellar fashion. The exit polls gave an edge to them, but Mamata Banerjee dismissed it, saying her Trinamool Congress would win over 200 seats. The Bengal CM has time and again crushed the predictions, famously in the 2021 elections. However, it appears that this time the figures have turned out to be true.
The BJP has secured more than 200 seats, throwing the TMC into a poor two-digit show. Banerjee, however, did not agree with the results. She termed the results “immoral” and alleged that the Election Commission and the BJP orchestrated against her side. “We will bounce back,” she warned.
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