Bengaluru, 4 May

While Karnataka is familiar with ‘Churumuri’ made of puffed rice, the BJP’s victory in West Bengal made its leaders in the southern State savour ‘Jhalmuri’ on Monday, outside the party office Jagannath Bhavan in Bengaluru. ‘Jhalmuri’, the Bengali snack, is also made of puffed rice and is universally popular in Bengal.

Party sources said the Bengali community thronged to the BJP’s office with loads of Bengali sweets such as Rasgulla, Sandesh, Ras Malai and so on.

On the suggestion of the Bengali community, the party leaders decided to set up ‘Jhalmuri’ table to serve to the visitors.

Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had himself walked to a vendor selling ‘Jhalmuri’ in the middle of the electioneering to eat it.

However, the party leaders’ words were less sweet than the snack.

Leader of Opposition in Assembly R Ashoka said that election results in West Bengal have shown that people believe that Modi is needed for the country’s security, alleging an influx of Bangladeshi “infiltrators” to whom the TMC granted Aadhaar and other necessary documents.

“For nearly 15 years, the Mamata Banerjee government had not allowed the Central forces to fence the border with Bangladesh. It is very clear from the election that people have supported the Narendra Modi government at the Centre,” he added.

Asked whether the BJP benefited from the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Ashoka said there was no question of the party benefiting from the SIR.

“Real voters will vote for national security, whereas intruders will back anti-national organisations,” he opined.

Surprised by Kerala results, expected defeat in Assam: CM

CM Siddaramaiah on Monday said the Congress had largely met or exceeded expectations in several States.

“In Assam, we got the expected result, and we accept the people’s mandate. In Kerala, we have won more seats than expected. We anticipated around 76 to 80,” Siddaramaiah said. He pointed to anti-incumbency as being a key factor in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.  “I congratulate the new entrant who has achieved success,” he added.

However, Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar said electoral outcomes in states such as Tamil Nadu and Assam had diverged from the party’s internal assessments, reflecting evolving voter expectations. Notably, he had campaigned in Assam.

“We expected a certain trend, but the results have been different. Political reading was wrong in some places…. We have to understand these changes carefully. Political reading cannot go wrong like this,” he said.