Lucknow, May 5 -- The Samajwadi Party, a major constituent of the INDIA bloc, has distanced itself from the Trinamool Congress's defeat in the West Bengal assembly elections, describing it as a decisive "people's verdict" against corruption and misgovernance.

Speaking exclusively to HT over the phone on Monday evening, SP national vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda said the writing was on the wall, which is why he did not campaign for any candidate in the West Bengal elections and had even informed Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav that the TMC would lose.

Yadav had kept himself away from campaigning in the West Bengal elections this time.

In a rare and unusually blunt public criticism of its INDIA bloc ally, Nanda said the ...