Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee on Saturday urged opposition parties to unite both at the Centre and in West Bengal against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), hinting that the party is preparing for a legal battle after a landslide defeat in the recently held assembly elections.
“A reign of terror has been unleashed. In such a scenario, I would urge all the opposition parties in Bengal, the student organisations and the NGOs to unite against the BJP. A united platform can be created where all political parties that are against the BJP should unite. Along with the national parties, I would urge the Leftists and the ultra-Leftists to unite in Bengal as well as in Delhi. If any political party wants to speak to me in this regard, I am available to discuss the matter. It needs to be remembered that our first enemy is the BJP,” Banerjee said
The BJP organised a grand swearing-in ceremony at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata where Suvendu Adhikari took the oath as chief minister in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. Around four kilometres away in Kalighat, Banerjee organised a small gathering near her residence, which was attended by a handful of TMC leaders and some intellectuals, to celebrate the birth anniversary of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
“Don’t worry. We will fight this battle. Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have also called me. Along with them, Prashant Bhushan and Menaka Guruswamy are also there with us in this battle. I am a lawyer myself. We have several other leaders like Kalyan Banerjee who will fight this battle. We know how to fight,” she added.
Banerjee alleged that the state government suddenly withdrew the cellular services which she enjoyed as a chief minister and also denied permission to celebrate Tagore’s birth anniversary at three places in the Kalighat area.
The Kolkata police earlier scaled down security arrangements outside Banerjee’s residence.
“All national leaders of the opposition have contacted me. I have spoken to Sonia ji, Rahul Gandhi, Kharge ji, Uddhav Thackeray and Tejashwi Yadav. Akhilesh Yadav himself came here. I have also spoken to Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal,” she said.
On Saturday Banerjee changed her social media profile from “chief minister of West Bengal” to “Chief Minister of West Bengal (15th, 16th and 17th Vidhan Sabha)”.
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This comes a day after she was criticised for not changing her social media profile.
On Thursday, governor RN Ravi dissolved the legislative assembly as Banerjee refused to resign from the CM’s post even after BJP swept the assembly polls winning 207 out of 294 seats. TMC won 80 seats.
She alleged that BJP, the Election Commission and the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) jointly rigged the counting.
“We don’t want to waste our time by making comments and taking interest in those who have lost their relevance in Bengal’s politics. There is a lot of work to do for the development of Bengal. They have always wanted to fight. They may do whatever they want. We want to do something constructive,” BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said.
