Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday called for a joint platform, urging all opposition forces to unite at both the central and state levels against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while hinting that her party is preparing for a legal battle following a landslide defeat in the recently concluded assembly elections.
“A reign of terror has begun. In such a scenario, I urge all opposition parties in Bengal, the student organisations and the NGOs to unite against BJP. A united platform can be created where all political parties that are against BJP should unite. Along with the national parties, I would urge the Leftists and the ultra-Leftists to unite in Bengal as well in Delhi. If any political party wants to speak to me in this regard, I am available to discuss the matter. It needs to be remembered that our first enemy is the BJP,” Banerjee said.
While the first BJP government was sworn in at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, around four kilometre away in Kalighat the TMC chairperson organized a small gathering near her residence to celebrate the birth anniversary of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
“Don’t worry. We will fight this battle. Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have also called me. Along with them, Prashant Bhushan and Menaka Guruswamy are also there with us in this battle. I am a lawyer myself. We have several other leaders like Kalyan Banerjee who will fight this battle. We know how to fight,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}“Don’t worry. We will fight this battle. Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have also called me. Along with them, Prashant Bhushan and Menaka Guruswamy are also there with us in this battle. I am a lawyer myself. We have several other leaders like Kalyan Banerjee who will fight this battle. We know how to fight,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}Banerjee alleged that the state government suddenly withdrew the cellular services she enjoyed as a CM and that permission were granted to celebrate the birth anniversary of Tagore at three places in Kalighat area.
“All national leaders of the opposition have contacted me. I have spoken to Sonia ji, Rahul Gandhi, Kharge ji, Uddhav Thackeray & Tejashwi Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav himself came here. I have also spoken to Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal,” she said.
Banerjee had refused to resign from the CM’s post even after BJP swept the assembly polls winning 207 out of 294 seats. The TMC won 80 seats. She had alleged BJP, the ECI and the CAPF jointly rigged the counting.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee changed the bio of her social media profile from chief minister of West Bengal to Chief Minister of West Bengal (15th, 16th and 17th Vidhan Sabha). This comes a day after Banerjee took a lot of flak for not changing her social media profile.
“We don’t want to waste our time by making comments and taking interest in those who have lost their relevance in Bengal’s politics. There is a lot of work to do for the development of Bengal. They have always wanted to fight. They may do whatever they want. We want to do something constructive,” BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said.