BJP has already lost the narrative will lose poll too when results are out Sagarika Ghose

New Delhi, May 22 (PTI) With issues like unemployment taking center stage, the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have lost the narrative already and they will lose the election too when the results are out on June 4, TMC Rajya Sabha member Sagarika Ghose said.
    In an interview with PTI, the journalist-turned-politician also said the Sandeshkhali issue has "backfired" on the BJP, and it will affect their poll prospects in West Bengal. She also expressed confidence the INDIA bloc will form the government after the elections.
    "In the general elections of 2024, Mr. Narendra Modi and the BJP have lost the narrative. This election has given the BJP and Narendra Modi a reality check. They were talking about "400 paar", they were talking about Viksit Bharat. This election has burst the balloon of Mr. Narendra Modi," Ghose said.
    She said issues like paper leaks, farmers' woes, declining household savings, rising unemployment, water scarcity and other such issues are in the focus in this election. "So these elections have been a reality check for Narendra Modi and the BJP".
    Talking about West Bengal, she claimed the BJP is struggling to get into "double-digits" in the state.
    "They don't know anything about the Bengali culture. Mr. Prime Minister is talking disparagingly about people who eat fish, they want to shut down meat shops, want to shut down fish shops. This has ruined the BJP's prospects in Bengal," she said.
    The BJP had won 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal in 2019, while the TMC won 22 and the Congress two. In March, Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari of the TMC, brother of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, joined the BJP, along with Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh.
    Singh was a BJP MP on Parliament records, but switched to the TMC after polls, before returning to the BJP ahead of elections. "The mood in Bengal is decidedly anti-BJP. It is very much in support of Mamata Banerjee and the BJP is struggling to get into double-digits in Bengal," she said.
    Ghose also said the Sandeshkhali issue has completely backfired on the BJP.
    "Bashirhat, which is the constituency of Sandeshkhali, the Trinamool Congress will win by over two lakh votes. Sandeshkhali was nothing but a conspiracy, a diabolical plot of the BJP to attack the Trinamool Congress, to defame Bengal, to defame the women of Bengal," she said.
    "It certainly will affect the BJP's poll prospects in West Bengal, because it shows while they talk about 'Nari Samman', they're willing to pay Rs 2,000 to women to get them to file false rape cases," she said.
    The remarks came in the backdrop of multiple videos surfacing on social media, which purported claimed a local BJP leader made several Sandeshkhali women sign blank papers, which were later filled up as complaints of sexual assault against TMC leaders.
    Ghose said she has not seen any election as "toxic" as this one, as she accused Modi and other BJP leaders of using foul language.
    "The supreme leader of the BJP, the prime minister himself is using such terrible language, foul language. His words have no weight. He's giving these interviews, which are meaningless. From 31st of March to 14th of May, he's given 41 interviews in 44 days. And all these interviews are about image-building and narcissism," she alleged.
    She also questioned the role of the Election Commission, amid the Opposition's continued accusations that the poll panel is not acting against MCC violations by the ruling party. However, she added there is no other recourse for the opposition but to approach the EC.
    "Another troubling feature of this election, I have to say, is the role of the Election Commission. Round after round (the Opposition) is bringing issues where the Election Commission needed to act. We saw a BJP member inside a poll booth lifting the veils of Muslim women to confirm their identity," she said, referring to an incident in Hyderabad, where BJP candidate K Madhavi Latha was seen asking burqa-wearing women voters at a polling booth to show their faces so that she could verify the identity.
    Latha was booked by election authorities after a video clip of the incident surfaced.
    "The Election Commission has been extremely disappointing in this election. The ruling party, the prime minister, have been engaging in hate speech, and the Election Commission has not thought it fit to intervene," she claimed.
    This is a "long and hot" election but the voters have been cold, she said. "They are indifferent, there is no wave."
    Asked about her switch from journalism to politics, Ghose, who recently joined the TMC and was elected to the Rajya Sabha, said she felt it was not the time for "fence-sitting".
    "I was very, very disillusioned by what was happening in the country. I think that all these guarantees that Mr. Modi talks about, you know, Modi ki guarantee is 420, is what we are saying," she said.
    "I felt in this situation, when our democracy is facing a crisis', there is no time for people to sit on the fence. I believe professionals have to plunge in and try to defend democracy," she said.
    "I felt that the challenge is existential, fundamental to our democracy, and so the time for non-alignment is over," she said.
    The TMC leader also expressed confidence over the opposition INDIA bloc is coming to power. "Mr Modi and the BJP have already lost the narrative of the general elections of 2024, and when the results come out, they will lose these elections, the INDIA alliance will form the government," she added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)