Sonia Gandhi: Bengal faces Modi-Mamata danger

Shedding her earlier reservations, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday made an appeal to the people of Bengal to vote for the Left candidates. Her unambiguous statement sent a clear signal to the supporters of the two camps and it would definitely result in a better coordination between them in the remaining two phases of the polling. “I am appealing to you to give every vote to the Congress and Left candidates and ensure their huge victories. And thus play your role in the progress and prosperity of Bengal,” she said at the first rally in South 24 Parganas’ Canning. At Srirampore rally in Hooghly, Mrs Gandhi ended her speech with an appeal to the voters to give every vote to Congress and “laal jhanda wali parties.” Even in the middle of her speech, she said it was Congress and Left parties which have always courageously fought the divisive and communal forces. At the canning rally the CPI(M) candidate from Jadavpur Sujan Chakraborty and at the Srirampore rally, CPI(M) candidate from Singur Rabin Deb shared stage with Mrs Gandhi.

On her previous two visits to Bengal, Mrs Gandhi addressed several election rallies where CPI(M) leaders were present. However, she did not utter a word about them. This created the impression that unlike son Rahul Gandhi, Mrs Gandhi was not in favour of the alliance.

“Today all such speculation had been put to rest,” a CPI(M) state secretary member said.

On one hand Mrs Gandhi sent the message of Congress-Left unity and on the other, she blamed the Modi-Mamata nexus for Bengal’s suffering. “Prime Minister Modi and Mamata didi are two sides of the same coin,” she said, adding that both were arrogant and autocratic. “Both want to rule by intimidating the people,” she added.

Mrs Gandhi said both Mr Modi and Ms Banerjee did not have faith in democratic and pluralistic valuses.

“Modi and Mamata are a danger for Bengal and demcoracy. Bengal’s development is not possible unless the state gets rid of them,” she claimed.

To prove Modi-Mamata nexus, Mrs Gandhi said that the Centre was not taking any action against those who looted the hard-earned money of the poor through Saradha chit fund scam.

“Trinamul Congress, in return, support Mr Modi’s anti-people policies,” she said. She also pointed out another similarity between the prime minister and the chief minister.

“Mr Modi says that in 60 years Congress did not do anything. Every thing has been done in the past two years... Mamata also claims that before she came to power, nothing was done in Bengal. You must not fall in the BJP and TMC’s trap,” she added.