TMC’s double tone: Mamata says ‘don’t vote for Congress, CPI(M)’, while 2 MPs attend Opposition rally in Delhi

New Delhi: Voting for the Congress and the CPI(M) in any of the Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal will mean voting for the BJP, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday. Meanwhile, her party’s two parliamentarians joined the opposition leaders at I.N.D.I.A. bloc’s rally in Delhi.

Banerjee herself did not attend the ‘Loktantra Bachao rally’ of the opposition parties at Ramlila Maidan in the national capital, instead she launched her party’s campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Krishnanagar in West Bengal.

She mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vow to win more than 400 Lok Sabha seats for the BJP-led NDA and challenged the saffron party to win even 200 seats.

The chief minister of West Bengal asked her party’s leaders to ignore the summons from the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate and to let the central agencies know that they could spare time only after the elections.

The TMC’s Rajya Sabha MPs – Sagarika Ghosh and Derek O’Brien – addressed the rally that the opposition parties held in Delhi to protest the alleged misuse of the central agencies by the BJP-led government to disturb the level playing field ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The rally focused particularly on the arrest of Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal, the chief ministers of Jharkhand and the National Capital Territory respectively. They stressed that the TMC remained a part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.

Their supremo, however, did not spare the Congress and the CPI(M), both constituents of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, while addressing a rally at Dhubulia in Krishnanagar to seek votes for her party’s candidate Mahua Moitra, who was expelled from the Lok Sabha last year for alleged unethical conduct.

"There is no I.N.D.I.A. alliance in West Bengal. I had played a key role in the formation of the opposition bloc. Even its name was given by me. But the Congress and CPI(M) are working for the BJP in the state,” Banerjee said, adding: “Don't cast your votes in favour of the Congress, the CPI (M) and their ally, a minority party (Indian Secular Front) in the state if you want to defeat the BJP,” she said, apparently making an appeal to pre-empt any erosion of her party’s minority vote-bank in the state.

The TMC is contesting from all the 42 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal. The negotiations between the Congress and the CPI(M) for fielding common candidates also went into trouble in the state.

Banerjee, however, strongly criticised the BJP-led Government at the Centre for allegedly misusing the central agencies to intimidate the opposition parties. “They arrested Arvind (Kejriwal), but they couldn't stop him from working. He is still working from jail,” she said. “In the BJP washing machine, one Patel (tacitly referring to NCP leader Praful Patel) went inside and is now free of corruption. This is how the BJP's washing machine works.”

The chief minister of West Bengal vowed not to allow the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state. “The CAA is a trap laid to turn legal citizens of the country into foreigners. After the CAA, they will bring the NRC (updating the National Register of Citizens). We would allow neither CAA nor NRC in West Bengal,” she said, addressing the rally at Dhubulia in Krishnanagar.

“Don't fall for the false assurance of the central government,” she said, adding: “If you apply, you will be designated as a foreigner for five years.”

She criticised the BJP-led Union Government for allegedly denying the state central funds for several schemes. She also highlighted her government’s welfare schemes.

Banerjee alleged that Moitra was expelled from the Lok Sabha because she consistently spoke up against the ruling BJP in the House. She also tacitly hit out at Moitra’s rival and the BJP candidate, Amrita Roy, by pointing out that Roy’s ancestor Krishnachandra Roy had helped the East India Company’s army led by Robert Clive defeat Bengal’s Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah in the Battle of Plassey in 1757.