After standing firmly with the tainted Ministers by the Narada expose, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday led an election rally in the State with the latters walking beside her.
Two senior Ministers and the Kolkata Mayor, all stung by the Narada expose, walked alongside Mamata in a huge election rally that the critics termed the CM’s own way of neutralising the hitherto most potent arsenal in the State Opposition’s hand. Used to hitting the streets whenever facing a popularity crisis Banerjee walked a couple of miles leading a huge crowd covering three-four South Kolkata Assembly constituencies including her own Bhawanipore seat.
The two senior Ministers who walked along with the Chief Minister were Subroto Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and were joined by Kolkata Mayor Sobhan Chatterjee — also an MlA. All of them were caught on camera accepting bribes from a journalist of a news portal who presented himself as a make believe businessman.
Apart from these leaders there were 5-6 other MPs and MlAs who were seen striking a deal for money with the ‘businessman’ apparently hitting the ruling TMC even harder than the Saradha and other chit fund scam worth several thousand crores and affecting more than 18 lakh people.
Reacting on the Monday’s march Bengal Deputy Speaker and close Mamata confidante Sonali Guha said “no crime is a crime unless proven” adding “The Trinamool will withstand the Narada storm much like it did in the case of Saradha. When Saradha could do nothing what will Narada doIJ let him be in heaven and we will rule in Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee as the people will vote for her and none else.”
Incidentally, Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek also a lok Sabha MP kept asking the voters not to look at who was contesting from a given constituency but to look at Mamata Banerjee who nominated them.
“Consider my face when you go for vote and not the candidate because it is Mamata Banerjee who is contesting from all the 294 seats and not the person who is filing the nomination. So vote for me and not anyone else and do not lend your ears to any disinformation campaign of the Opposition,” Banerjee had been telling rallies in North and South Bengal.