Apparently proving the Bengal CPI(M) leadership’s contention that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was a “Narendra Modi’s secret agent in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, (INDIA) to break it from within,” the clamour for making her the Prime Ministerial face of the Congress-led Opposition alliance tended to get louder.
While BJP-turned-Congress-turned-TMC MP Shantrughna Sinha made a loud pitch for Banerjee’s prime ministerial candidature some banners put up at the Face book AITC Members short-named FAM read “the people of Bengal wants Mamata Banerjee to be the next Prime Minister.”
The FAM post read "Bolche banglar jonota, pradhanmantri houk Mamata” which means the people of Bengal have made it clear that they want Mamata Banerjee as their Prime Minister.
Curiously, the Chief Minister however, distanced herself from the “demand” telling a rally at Behala in South Kolkata that Bengal (read TMC) only wanted to see the BJP out and that it did not want any chair so to say. “Bengal does not want Kursi (post) … it only wants the BJP out of power,” she told a rally held first time after the local MLA and former number two of Banerjee’s Cabinet Partha Chatterjee went to jail in connection with the recruitment scam.
In what looked like a planned and concerted clamour within the TMC seeking a promotion for Banerjee the actor-turned-Asansol MP too said that though there was no dearth of talent in the INDIA, “It would be very good for the country that at a time when we also have a woman as the President, we had a woman as the Prime Minister too. A firebrand leader like Mamata Banerjee, who has a mass base, would fit the bill.”he said.
General elections are scheduled to take place less than a year from now.
Apart from Sinha or the Bengal ruling outfit’s Facebook suggestions which read, "Bolche banglar jonota, pradhanmantri houk Mamata (Bengal wants Mamata as the PM),” senior Minister and Kolkata Mayor, Firhad Hakim, too said, “Mamata Banerjee is the ideal face for Prime Minister in 2024.”
He said that Banerjee’s position should be fortified in the INDIA alliance by giving the TMC all the 42 out of 42 parliamentary seats from Bengal. “There is no doubt that Mamata Banerjee is the perfect person for the Prime Minister's seat. But to make her the Prime Minister we are aiming at winning all the 42 out of 42 seats in the Lok Sabha elections,” Hakim said adding “if the INDIA alliance wins the elections defeating the NDA” then it would be hard to stop her from becoming the natural choice for PM’s post.