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‘Game for 2024 will begin from Bengal’: Mamata names her A-team to fight BJP
TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee attacked the BJP-led Centre over an under secretary-rank communication to her to invite her to attend the unveiling of Netaji Subhash Chandra’s statue in Delhi
KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday that she will team up with Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, Janata Dal-United’s Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren among other non-BJP parties to oust the BJP from the Centre.
“Khela Hobe (a game would be played). Let us first peacefully complete the panchayat elections (in West Bengal) and then we will play the game for 2024. The game will start from Bengal,” said Banerjee as she addressed a few thousand party workers at an organizational meeting in Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor stadium.
The West Bengal chief minister has long advocated a third front led by regional satraps to take on the BJP in the 2024 elections. The TMC, which is attempting to expand its footprint beyond Bengal, has signalled on multiple occasions that it is equipped to take on the BJP at a national level in 2024.
It was in this context that the TMC boss earlier wrote to non-BJP chief ministers and opposition parties to unite against the BJP in March this year when she also accused the BJP of using central agencies to harass its political rivals. In June, Banerjee played a key role in fielding a joint opposition candidate for the Presidential election. The party however abstained from voting in the Vice President election.
“We are together now. There is Nitish ji, there is Akhilesh, there is Hemant, I am there and there are our friends. We are everywhere. Everyone will unite. There are around 100 seats in these states. How will they (BJP) form the government? We want a people’s government and a janata darbar,” said Banerjee.
The chief minister also attacked the BJP-led Centre over the way she was invited to attend the unveiling of Netaji Subhash Chandra’s statue by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and for not inviting her to be a part of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ongoing visit to India.
“Day before yesterday I received a letter, probably sent by an under-secretary, in which I was asked to take my seat by 6pm as the Prime Minister would unveil the statue at 7pm. As if I am a servant and a bonded labour. An under-secretary can’t write to a chief minister like this. Even the Union minister for art and culture didn’t find the time to write a letter,” she said, explaining why she skipped the programme in the national capital on Thursday.
“I don’t want to comment about our external affairs policy. Hasina ji has come. We share an excellent relationship. This is the first time I saw that the Prime Minister of Bangladesh has come and Bengal was not invited. I am grateful that she (Hasina) wanted to meet,” she said.
The TMC’s image has been hit after two of its heavyweight leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondol were arrested for their alleged roles in the school recruitment case and cattle smuggling case. Central agencies have also questioned Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee and his wife Rujira in the coal smuggling case.
The TMC supremo also attacked the Centre for allegedly using central agencies to harass her party leaders even as her nephew Abhishek Banerjee attacked Union home minister Amit Shah.
“I want the BJP to send more such agencies because, in the end, they will find nothing. I have learnt that they have nothing (no evidence against TMC leaders),” she added.
With the panchayat elections, which are being seen as a litmus test ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, likely to be held in the first half of 2023, the TMC supremo said that the party would dive headlong into the poll preparations after the festive season.
“This is not the first time that they (TMC) are making such attempts for a united opposition. They had made similar campaigns in 2014 and 2019. Slogans were also raised to uproot the BJP. Sometimes it was said that Mamata would be the Prime Minister and sometimes it was said that she will be the driving force. Again such claims are being made to raise the political heat,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson.
