Days after asserting her Ekla Chalo (go it alone) policy in the 2024 general elections Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday made a somersault championing the cause of Opposition unity warning the Narendra Modi Government that she would now proceed to unite the Opposition parties with the sole purpose of ousting the BJP from power.
On the concluding day of her two-day dharna against central deprivation of Bengal the Chief Minister said that a time had come when the wily and whimsical BJP Government — which had no feeling for the common people and no respect for democratic norms — should be thrown out of power.
Comparing the present saffron regime to the one run by Md bin Tughlaq in the medieval period Banerjee said “they will collect GST from the states and spend it on fanciful projects and if you raise a question they will send CBI, ED, Income Tax, CAG and NIA to your house.” Banerjee said how the BJP sends protesters to her residence when she goes to Delhi adding, “now enough is enough … if I descend to unite the opposition I will do it at any cost … so as to throw this Government out of power.” The BJP Government would not last beyond 2024, she asserted adding the saffron outfit’s fall would begin from Karnataka.
“For Bengal they will hold 8-9 phase elections and in Karnataka they will complete polling in one day thinking that they will win their. “
But this time they are going to be defeated in that State,” Banerjee said. On the question of leadership she earlier said that the issue could be decided later.
“First it is the question of defeating the BJP. And the Khela (game) will start from Uttar Pradesh where we will play alongside the Samajwadi Party of Akhilesh Yadav.” Attacking the BJP for blocking funds she said “it is the constitutional obligation of the government to pay the wages for getting the works done but here in Bengal they have blocked the wages of 17 lakh families.”
Saying that she had “approached the Prime Minister Narendra Modi four times and Home Minister Amit Shah once with the State’s request to clear its dues Banerjee said, “please listen to me BJP … when we are asking for the MNREGA funds we are asking for our rights … we are not your servants … we are not your bonded labourers … after repeated requests you have not cleared the State’s dues and have forced me to sit in a dharna … and even after that not a tiny leader of the BJP showed up to give some assurance … now I will take thousands of youth from Bengal and jam Delhi to get our rights.”
Curiously the TMC supremo had fallen comparatively silent in the past several months particularly after the arrest of her senior ministerial colleagues and a number of party leaders in recruitment scam and cattle smuggling case.
The latest rise in the decibel level of her anti-BJP voice comes days after ED notices being sent to some of her close relatives regarding some cases, sources said.
