Mamata Banerjee’s House, Neighbourhood Wear Deserted Look

Kolkata: With more security personnel than party workers, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee’s house and the street leading to her residence in South Kolkata’s Kalighat wore a deserted look on Thursday with counting trends for the Lok Sabha polls showing a big increase in the BJP’s numbers and a consequent decrease in the ruling party’s tally of seats.

Barring some workers who were celebrating party’s Kolkata South candidate Mala Roy’s huge about 1.5 lakh vote lead, the mood was sombre as many senior leaders gave the miss to their usual celebratory gathering at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street. In the wake of the stunning performance of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections both at the Centre and her state, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said her party would do a “complete review” of the vote outcome. “We have to do a complete review and then we will share our views with you all. Let the counting process be completed and the VVPATs matched,” Mamata Banerjee tweeted. The Trinamool activists and supporters were clearly taken aback by the trends as they were expecting a repeat of the Trinamool’s performance five years back when it bagged 34 of the 42 seats in the state.

Asked about the unusual scene at Harish Chatterjee Street, which generally remains choc a bloc with Trinamool supporters on vote counting day, one of 10-12 party workers who were seen lazing under a shed by the roadside said: “We cannot believe the overall results though Mala-di (Mala Roy) is winning with a record margin. We do not know how the exit-polls prediction matched with the election results.” (IANS)

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