People of both Bengal, Maharashtra rejected BJP: Mamata

Simply by looking at the result of the Assembly by-polls of Bengal and the government formation in Maharashtra, it is clear that the people of both the states have rejected the BJP, said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday.

"Bengal is the cultural capital and Maharashtra has the financial capital of India. In both these states, people have voted against BJP. The fact is that within 5-6 months, after massive Lok Sabha victory, they have been rejected states after states," Banerjee told reporters here.

Continuing her attack on BJP, Banerjee added that the national party needed to learn how to take the state governments into confidence and work alongside them.

"BJP always thinks 'either my way or the high way'. In a democracy like ours, there are national and state highways both. We both have to work together. If someone thinks that they are the highway and we are no way, we will not accept that," she said.

Earlier in the results of the by-elections announced today, the TMC won all three Assembly seats in West Bengal, where the by-poll had been held on November 25.

The Assembly seats where the by-poll took place were Kaliaganj, Kharagpur Sadar and Karimpur.

In the results announced today, Bimalendu Sinha Roy of TMC defeated Jay Prakash Majumdar of the BJP by a margin of more than 23,000 votes on Karimpur seat, while Pradip Sarkar beat BJP's Prem Chandra Jha by close to 20,000 votes on Kharagpur Sadar seat.

Tapan Deb Singha of the TMC won from Kaliaganj (SC) seat by beating Kamal Chandra Sarkar of the BJP by a margin of close to 2,000.

Later in the evening, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray also took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra. Thackeray is leading the Congress, NCP and Shiv Sena alliance government in the state.

( With inputs from ANI )