Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday called for a common platform, urging all opposition forces to unite at the central and state levels against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while hinting that her party is gearing up for a legal battle after the crushing defeat in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
“The reign of terror has begun. In such a scenario, I urge all opposition parties in Bengal, student organizations and NGOs to unite against the BJP. A unified platform can be created where all political parties that are opposed to the BJP should unite. Along with the national parties, I would urge the leftists and ultra-leftists to unite in Bengal as well as in Delhi. If any political party wants to talk to me in this regard, I am ready to discuss the matter. We must remember that the first enemy is the BJP,” Banerjee said.
As the first BJP government took oath at Brigade Parade in Kolkata, about four kilometers away in Kalighat, the TMC chief organized a small gathering near her residence to mark the birth anniversary of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
“Don’t worry. We will fight this fight. Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have also called me. Besides them, Prashant Bhushan and Menaka Guruswamy are also with us in this fight. I am a lawyer too. We have many other leaders like Kalyan Banerjee who will fight this fight. We know how to fight,” she added.
Banerjee alleged that the state government had suddenly withdrawn the cellular services she had enjoyed as chief minister and permission was given to celebrate Tagore’s birth anniversary at three places in Kalighat district.
“All the national opposition leaders have called me. I spoke to Sonia ji, Rahul Gandhi, Karji ji, Uddhav Thackeray and Tejashwi Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav himself came here. I also spoke to Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal,” she said.
Banerjee refused to resign from the post of chief minister even after the BJP won the assembly elections by winning 207 of the 294 seats. The Transitional Military Council won 80 seats. She alleged that the BJP, Election Commission of India and CAPV jointly rigged the counting process.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee changed her social media profile bio from Chief Minister of West Bengal to Chief Minister of West Bengal (15th, 16th and 17th Vidhan Sabha). This comes a day after Banerjee came under a lot of criticism for not changing her social media profile.
“We don’t want to waste our time by making comments and paying attention to those who have lost their relevance in Bengal politics. There is a lot of work to be done for the development of Bengal. They have always wanted to fight. They may do what they want. We want to do something constructive,” BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said.
