“As BJP rises in Bengal, Opposition looks lost and rudderless”, First Post, May 09, 2026
“First, a clarification. Yours truly hasn’t turned into an overnight columnist on domestic politics. I did write a piece on the change of guard in West Bengal and the end of Mamata Banerjee’s despotism, but that was more of a cathartic release. I promise you, dear readers, that this one will be the end of my detour.
That said, what prompted this unplanned column is a post on social media by Sanjay Raut on Friday morning. A member of the Opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) in Maharashtra, Raut took umbrage at US president Donald Trump’s gesture of congratulating prime minister Narendra Modi for BJP’s win in West Bengal, and proceeded to lecture him that the elections in India were not “free, fair and credible”.
Raut’s “open letter” is not only a study in contradiction – since he began by telling Trump that his ‘endorsement’ of Modi is ‘interference’ in “internal matter of India’s federal democracy” – but also a sad reflection of the Opposition’s cluelessness and pessimism……”
Read full article at firstpost.com
