E-Paper
State poll victories won’t make Presidential election cakewalk for BJP: Mamata
TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee said the recent state poll victories won’t make the Presidential election a cakewalk for the BJP and claimed ‘the game is not over yet.’
KOLKATA: The upcoming Presidential election will not be a cakewalk for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) despite its recent victory in the assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur, Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said in her address to the state legislative assembly on Wednesday.
Amid protests by opposition legislators, Mamata Banerjee, while delivering her reply to the points raised at the budget session, said: “The BJP may have won elections in four states but not even half of the country’s legislators, who elect the President of India, belong to the party. It will not be easy for the BJP to win this election. The game is not over yet.”
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson said those who don’t have even half the number of legislators in India should not make tall claims.
The Presidential election is conducted through an electoral college with Parliament and legislative assembly members casting their votes in order of preference for the candidates in fray.
“Regional forces, such as the Samajwadi Party, may have been defeated but they are stronger now,” said Banerjee, implying that her ally in Uttar Pradesh controls 111 of the state’s 403 seats, 64 more than its tally in the last polls.
“Opposition parties have more MLAs across the nation. The country is fighting the party at the Centre,” she said.
The chief minister’s speech focused largely on law-and-order situation in Bengal and the police since the opposition MLAs raised slogans against Banerjee, who is also the home minister, alleging that murder of two recently-elected councillors on Sunday exposed her inefficiency.
Banerjee, while speaking on the budget allocation for the home and hill affairs department said the opposition did not say a word to condemn the murder of TMC councilor Anupam Dutta at Panihati in North 24 Parganas. Tapan Kandu, the other councilor who was murdered, belonged to the Congress.
Amid slogans against the state police whose role has been questioned in recent years, Banerjee said, “Inefficiency of one or two people does not determine the effectiveness of the entire police force. The police are conducting thorough investigations. Nobody will be spared.”
“The police will not take into account the political background of any suspect. They will take strong action,” she said.
There was a ruckus when the leader of opposition in the assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, started shouting at the chief minister saying she cannot shield the perpetrators of violence. The BJP lawmakers staged a walkout while raising the Jai Sri Ram slogan.
“I was not allowed to speak,” Adhikari alleged after leaving the assembly.
