Fresh from her party's loss in Sagardighi Assembly by-elections where the Congress and the Left teamed up to rout the Trinamool Congress and push the BJP to a distant third position, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday launched a frontal attack against the three parties for joining hands at the cost of their respective ideologies.
Raising the issue of Sunday's CBI raid at former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi's Patna residence, and linking the Agency action to a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi — questioning political use of ED and CBI —signed by senior Opposition leaders including herself and Tejaswi Yadav the Bihar Deputy Chief Minister, Banerjee asked "why does the CBI does not raid the houses of the Congress leaders … this is because the Congress is the BJP's A Team and the CPI(M) is its B Team."
Unholy alliances featuring the BJP, Congress and Left would not be able to cow her down Banerjee said, adding, "I will continue to fight the mischievous designs of BJP-Congress-Left alone … they should not think that by striking a deal in a single election they will be able to get the better of me."
On the continued agitation by a large part of the State Government employees demanding dearness allowances on par with their Central Government counterparts, Banerjee said she would not be able to give DA beyond the six percent that has already been announced due to lack of funds.
"I have given so much … how much more do you want … I cannot give more than 6 percent DA," Banerjee said accusing the CPI(M) of provoking the government servants against her. Attacking the Centre for not releasing funds required for various welfare schemes --- that incidentally had been her electoral mainstay in the past two elections --- Banerjee said, "I have to run a whole lot of social welfare schemes … I cannot stop them … the government staff are threatening strike and cease work but they are not asking the Centre to release the funds that have been withheld by them."