E-Paper
BJP trying to repeat Tripura-model in poll-bound Bengal, says CM Mamata
In West Bengal, at least 23 sitting MLAs and former legislators, a majority of them from the ruling TMC, have joined the BJP since 2019. Recently, at least two former ministers and ex-TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee joined the BJP.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to replicate the Tripura-model in poll-bound West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief and CM Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.
“Many people had abandoned the Congress and had helped the BJP to become more powerful and form the government in Tripura. The BJP think that they can apply the same formula in Bengal and form the government here with some traitors who left the TMC,” she said, while addressing a party meeting in Kolkata.
At least six former TMC MLAs, who were expelled by the party, switched over to the BJP ahead of the Tripura assembly polls in 2018. The six were earlier with the Congress and had joined the TMC in June 2016. The BJP won 36 out of the 60 seats in Tripura assembly and formed the government. The TMC could not win any seat.
“In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when not many MLAs from the TMC and other parties had joined us, the BJP had won 18 Lok Sabha seats. So it is clear that the people of Bengal are now against the TMC and the party will lose the elections. In Tripura the six MLAs who joined the BJP were from TMC. She is ashamed to tell the truth,” said Rahul Sinha, veteran BJP leader and the party’s former national secretary.
In West Bengal, at least 23 sitting MLAs and former legislators, a majority of them from the ruling TMC, have joined the BJP since 2019. Recently, at least two former ministers and ex-TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee joined the BJP.
The chief minister was visibly peeved and lost her patience when some women from the audience tried to approach her with a set of demands. Banerjee stopped her speech midway.
“I am not God. How much do you want? I have given everything. Don’t try to blackmail me before the elections. I am a street fighter,” she said.
Upping her ante against the BJP she said that many people from Tripura have migrated to West Bengal and out of fear after the BJP came to power in the north eastern state.
“Those who point fingers at Bengal should first take a look at what’s happening in BJP-ruled states like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh among others. In Tripura, the residents once used to raise slogans that the CPI(M) had ruined the state. The same people now raise slogans that the BJP has devastated the state. Many people of Tripura stay in West Bengal out of fear,” she added.
