Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday advised BJP not to be so excited about winning in Tripura as it was much more of a defeat of the CPI-M due to its “arrogance and haughtiness” and “non functioning and negligence” of the Congress.

“It is a defeat of CPI-M’s haughtiness and arrogance. They (read BJP) spent money like water through hose pipe. BJP won through malfunctioning of EVM, bringing people from outside and through a huge deployment of central forces. I’m unable to understand why CPI-M did not lodge any protest at the Election Commission against the BJP.

The reason behind CPI-M surrendering before the BJP is a big mystery for us….It may be possible that they have been blackmailed or threatened by central agencies,” she said while responding to reporters prior to leaving Nabanna.

Attributing the non performace of the Congress behind BJP’s victory, Miss Banerjee said that had it (read Congress) put up a good fight then the poll results would have been much different. “CPI-M had been in power for a long time so they were defeated due to incumbency. People of Tripura wanted a change. But had the Congress fought well then BJP would have won in lesser seat.”

“I had approached the Congress for seat adjustment and had personally taken up the matter with party president Rahul Gandhi. I had told him that we were new in Tripura and did not have enough support base so proposed bringing the Congress, Trinamul Congress and the local hill parties to fight the polls unitedly.

I had even said that our party would field candidates in 14 seats, the hill parties in 16 and Congress in 30 seats. The move would have helped in setting up an Opposition platform. But, they (read Congress) did not respond to my suggestion. I don’t know why the Congress provided oxygen to the BJP. I pursued the matter but there was total negligence on their part. I don’t know on whose advice Congress ignored my proposal. Now, the results have left them shameful as it was the Opposition party in the state,” she said.

Hitting out at the BJP for claiming that the win would pave the victory path for 2019 polls, Miss Banerjee said that those who are portraying the win in a big way are living in a fool’s paradise. “Tripura is a small andbeautiful state with a population of only 25 lakh. In our state, the district of Howrah alone has 38 lakh voters. So, if one thinks that by winning in Tripura it will be a victory in the 2019 polls then it is like a cockroach putting on the feathers of a peacock,” she added.

Miss Banerjee said that the BJP has failed wherever there was resistance as in Meghalaya. The saffron party will face defeat in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and will be defeated in Karnataka, she said adding that despite pumping so much money, the party suffered a moral defeat in Gujarat.

She said that the BJP was trying to spread its wings in the states through barbarism. “There will be complete defeat for the BJP in 2019 polls. The turning point would be Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh assembly polls.”

She said that the BJP’s only aim to “strengthen RSS and BJP but lack governance. There is lynching (refering to recent Gujarat incident) and utter corruption through demonetisation. The central forces too have been politicised,” she added.

“The Trinamul will begin afresh in Tripura. It is a challenge for us,” she said.

Earlier, Trinamul Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee said that the party had never claimed of winning in Tripura. “The person whom we had deputed for organising polls in the state acted as a traitor and moved to another party and thereby broke our organisation,” Mr Chatterjee added.