‘We favoured alliance but Congress went with CPIM, regional parties will replace the BJP-govt’: Mamata

Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee, on Thursday, claimed that the Opposition, comprising regional parties, will replace the BJP at the Centre, following the Lok Sabha elections. The leader said that her party was in favour of an alliance with the Congress, but the latter didn’t do it, and instead a CPIM-Congress alliance took place.

Addressing a public meeting in Nadia, Banerjee emphasised unity among the people, stating that her party was strong enough to contest alone in Bengal. “I am with you. If you are with me, then I promise that after winning from Bengal we will take over Delhi. What’s going to be the policy, how it will be done…after the elections, in consultation with regional parties, we will do it together… But, I don’t agree to be in sync with the CPIM,” Banerjee said.

“Do you trust me?... Remember, we will win Delhi. Bengal will show the way. In Bengal we will fight alone. The reason is that we were in favour of the alliance, but the Congress didn’t do so. The alliance happened between the CPIM, and the Congress, to facilitate the BJP. I don’t support the CPIM, the BJP,” Banerjee said.

The Bengal chief minister also spoke in support of Mahua Moitra, the Trinamool MP expelled from Lok Sabha. “They expelled Mahua because she spoke for the people… I believe that Mahua will win with the people’s votes,” she said.

Meanwhile, on another front, senior CPIM leaders from the state met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who continued with his party’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in West Bengal.

Trinamool critical of the Union budget

Chandrima Bhattacharya, senior Trinamool leader and a minister in the state government, considered the Union budget as directionless, and said that there’s nothing for the common citizen in it. She said that aspirations of the different sections of society got missed out in the budget, and the tax structure remained unchanged. Bhattacharya pointed at the food inflation rate – as observed in the latter part of the last year, and the need for jobs that went unattended.