‘Bengal will show the path in 2019’: Mamata Banerjee says she will launch ‘BJP hatao’ campaign
The West Bengal chief minister confirmed that Chandan Mitra, who resigned from the BJP this week, has joined Trinamool Congress.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party, saying her party, Trinamool Congress, will launch the “BJP hatao, desh bachao” campaign on August 15.
“We will win all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” PTI quoted Banerjee as saying. “It is our pledge. We will oust the BJP to save the country. We will organise a big rally here in January and invite all the [Opposition] leaders.” The Trinamool Congress is the fourth largest party in the Lok Sabha with 34 seats.
Banerjee was addressing a rally in Kolkata on the occasion of Martyr’s Day organised by the Trinamool Congress in memory of 13 Youth Congress activists who were killed in a police firing in 1993. This year marks the 25th death anniversary of the activists.
“2019 will be a big blow, Bengal will show the path,” the chief minister said. “Those who cannot make a tent want to build a country,” Banerjee said in a reference to a makeshift tent collapsing during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally for farmers in Midnapore on Monday.
“During the no-confidence vote in the Lok Sabha yesterday [Friday], they [NDA] got 325 votes, but in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, their strength will come down to barely 100 seats,” she said, adding that the saffron party’s Lok Sabha seats in states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat will significantly reduce.
Banerjee said former Rajya Sabha MP Chandan Mitra, who resigned from the BJP on Wednesday, former Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP Moinul Hasan, Congress’ Sabina Yasmin and Mizoram advocate general Biswajit Deb have joined her party, reported The Indian Express.
Referring to the panchayat polls, Mamata Banerjee said questions were not raised when seats went uncontested in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Sikkim. “But we are being questioned even though we won 90% of the seats,” NDTV quoted her saying.
“The way lynchings are happening every where in the country, they are creating Talibanis among people,” she said, adding that the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have “good people whom I respect but some are playing dirty games”.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had earlier this week criticised the BJP and asked if the saffron party has started a Taliban in Hinduism.
Reacting to Banerjee’s comments, BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha said the Trinamool Congress chief should “stop dreaming” about becoming India’s next prime minister, PTI reported.
“There are doubts whether she will be able to retain power in Bengal and she is dreaming of Delhi,” Sinha said. “She should stop dreaming about being the next prime minister as her ambitions will never be fulfilled.”