Mamata sat in darkness during Modi’s swearing-in: TMC MP Sagarika Ghose
According to the TMC supremo, as tweeted by Ghose, Modi has “resoundingly lost the mandate” and been “rejected by the people”
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee switched off all her lights and sat in darkness during the entire swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi Cabinet 3.0, according to her party Trinamool Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose. According to the TMC supremo, as tweeted by Ghose, Modi has “resoundingly lost the mandate” and been “rejected by the people”.
“To all those celebrating the ‘swearing-in’ of @narendramodi, a message from India’s only woman chief minister @MamataOfficial. She switched off all her lights and sat in darkness during the entire so-called ‘ceremony’ for a ‘prime minister’ who has resoundingly lost the mandate and has been rejected by the people,” she posted on X.
“Almost lost in Varanasi, lost in Ayodhya, could not get a majority in spite of a campaign centred entirely on himself. Modi should be replaced. Let the @BJP4India elect a fresh leader,” she added in the post.
The facts
Modi won the Varanasi seat for the third consecutive time in this election, though with a much-reduced victory margin of 152,513 votes. It marked a sharp fall from his 2019 victory margin of 479,505 votes, and also noticeably lower than his 2014 victory margin of 371,784 votes.
Curiously, the BJP lost the Faizabad seat, which includes Ayodhya, to the Samajwadi Party despite the Ram temple issue being one of its electoral campaign highlights.
The party also performed poorly this time compared to the previous two polls, failing to bag 272 — the halfway mark — of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. Since the saffron party on its own could manage only 240 seats, it is now reliant on its allies Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal United (JDU) for adequate numbers in the Lower House.
Gala event
Incidentally, Modi governments 1.0 and 2.0 were sworn in after 10 and seven days, respectively, of the poll results being announced. This time, the BJP top brass held several discussions with NDA allies, especially TDP and JDU, to reach an agreement on ministerial berths. Yet, the swearing-in ceremony of a full Cabinet of 72 ministers — Modi’s largest team so far — came within only four days of the results. The TDP and JDU seem happy with two ministerial berths each — one of Cabinet rank and one junior minister.
While all Opposition leaders — including Mamata Banerjee — boycotted the oath-taking ceremony on June 9, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge attended the event. The gala swearing-in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan was reportedly attended by nearly 9,000 people, including seven top leaders from India’s neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region, top businessmen such as Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, and film stars Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, and Rajinikanth.
Members of the transgender community, sanitation workers and labourers, who were involved in the construction of the new parliament building, also attended the swearing-in ceremony as Modi equalled Jawaharlal Nehru’s record of three straight terms in the office as Prime Minister.