Mamata Banerjee slams Congress, Left, BJP ‘rainbow tieup’
Continuing her tirade against the CPI(M), Congress and BJP, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the Opposition parties have joined hands for the sole objective of defeating her Trinamul Congress in the coming Assembly election. “All our opponents have ganged up against us and formed a rainbow coalition because they cannot fight us alone. Although they routinely abuse the BJP, they have no problem in taking the help of the party in some places. They are trying to adopt the Siliguri model. The three parties have come together to defeat the TMC at any cost,” Ms Banerjee said.
She addressed two election rallies at Suti and Lalbagh in Murshdiabad district. On Wednesday, she had addressed her first election rally in Malda where she had launched a scathing attack against what she branded as “unprincipled and unethical” alliance of the CPI(M) and Congress. On Thursday, she claimed that the Congress has sold its flag to the CPI(M) and the latter has given up its fundamental ideology. “The CPI(M) has abandoned Marx and Lenin and has become the Congress Party of India (Marxist). The Congress has forgotten Gandhi and Nehru, and is raising the slogan of Marxbad-Jindabad,” she said.
Both Malda and Murshidabad are considered Congress stronghold. Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, who is the most vociferous Mamata-baiter, exercises enormous influence in Murshidabad. Without naming him, Ms Banerjee on Thursday took the battle to the enemy camp. She claimed that her party’s tally will drastically improve in North Bengal.
“This time a different wind is blowing in Malda and Murshidabad. If some people think that the TMC will bag fewer seats in North Bengal, then they will be proved wrong,” she said.
She said the people of Murshdiabad always extended support to the Congress, the party did virtually nothing for the district. The CPI(M) also neglected Murshidabad during its 34-year rule, she added. The chief minister claimed that although her party did not receive much support in elections in Murshidabad, her government has done a lot of development work in the district, including setting up of two new power units at Sagardighi at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore.
