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Ahead of Goa visit, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee urges political parties to unite against BJP
Election to the 40-member Goa assembly is likely to be held early next year. The TMC after returning to power for the third consecutive time with a sweeping victory in the recently held West Bengal Assembly polls has made inroads in BJP-ruled states of Goa and Tripura.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged political parties to unite against the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ‘divisive agenda’ ahead of her maiden visit to Goa next week even as her nephew Abhishek Banerjee attacked the Congress.
“As I prepare for my maiden visit to Goa on 28th, I call upon all individuals, organisations and political parties to join forces to defeat the BJP and their divisive agenda. The people of Goa have suffered enough over the last 10 years,” Banerjee tweeted.
Election to the 40-member Goa assembly is likely to be held early next year. The TMC after returning to power for the third consecutive time with a sweeping victory in the recently held West Bengal Assembly polls has made inroads in BJP-ruled Goa and Tripura.
“Together, we will usher in a new dawn for Goa by forming a new govt that will truly be a govt of the people of Goa and committed to realising their aspirations! #GoenchiNaviSaka,” she tweeted.
In September, the TMC had sent a team of senior leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien and Lok Sabha MP Prasun Banerjee to Goa, to assess the political situation before taking the plunge.
Former Goa chief minister and veteran Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro has already joined the TMC. On Friday, the TMC had appointed Faleiro as its vice president less than a month of his joining the party. Earlier this month, boxer Lenny Da Gama and footballer Denzil Franco joined the party.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor has been working with members of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) to boost the party’s footprint in the western state and help the party gain ahead of assembly elections.
“Political parties are uniting against Mamata Banerjee. So she must fight that first before asking political parties to unite against the BJP,” said Rahul Sinha, senior BJP leader.
Even as Mamata Banerjee was trying to unite the opposition her nephew Abhishek Banerjee upped the ante against the Congress while addressing a political rally in West Bengal.
“For the last seven years Congress has been losing against the BJP. The TMC is winning against the BJP. The Congress sometimes made settlements with the BJP to defeat the TMC, while sometimes it formed alliances with the CPIM and Indian Secular Front. The party has no ideal and hence has no place in Bengal,” he said.
The Congress, however, lashed out saying that the TMC should keep the electoral arithmetic in mind before taking on the BJP.
“The TMC should keep in mind the national electoral arithmetic in which the Congress still holds 20% of the vote. Without the Congress the TMC, which just has around 4% votes, won’t be able to fight the BJP. Attacking the Congress would strengthen the BJP. It seems that the TMC doesn’t want to actually fight the BJP,” said Adhir Chowdhury, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.
Abhishek Banerjee, who was appointed the party’s national general secretary earlier this year, announced that the TMC party will expand its base in at least five states other than Goa and Tripura and set up working units in 15 other states ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
