Vote for AAP, Didi appeals to delhiites

Cornered by the BJP and probe agencies in connection with the Saradha scam, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called upon the people of Delhi on Thursday to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). While she apparently has nothing to do with Delhi election results, analysts see this as Mamata’s desperate bid to see BJP’s defeat.

Cornered by the BJP and probe agencies in connection with the Saradha scam, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee called upon the people of Delhi on Thursday to vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

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“Delhi elections on 7. My request to all of you in Delhi to please vote for AAP. For the greater need of the country and development in Delhi,” Banerjee tweeted. The Capital votes on February 7.

While she apparently has nothing to do with Delhi election results, analysts see this as Mamata’s desperate bid to see BJP’s defeat. She has been alleging the BJP was using the CBI as a political tool to harass her party.

“The CBI and the ED are sending our leaders to jails and BJP leaders are using this opportunity to break our party. The party hopes that the BJP suffers a setback,” a Trinamool leader told HT while commenting on Mamata’s tweet. Mamata’s decision to bat for AAP was in sharp contrast to her party’s earlier stand when it refused to praise Arvind Kejriwal for his clean image. Trinamool leaders had always maintained that Mamata’s life and politics were better examples.

The BJP and the Congress, on the other hand, said her proactive support to AAP reveals the amount of trouble the party was going through.

“The decision reflects the frustration she is going through. She wants to stay relevant at national politics at any cost,” Shamik Bhattacharya, BJP’s lone MLA is Bengal, told HT.

“She has gone directionless,” state Congress leader Arunabha Ghosh said. While BJP and AAP are in for a tough slugfest for the Delhi crown according to prepoll estimates, Congress is a distant third.