India wants permanent PM, not contractual one: Naqvi

Taking a dig at the Mahagathbandhan and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s effort to unite the Opposition, Union Minister Muktar Abbas Naqvi said on Sunday that the country does not need a contractual prime minister but a permanent one.

Pointing that there were too many leaders with prime ministerial ambition in the united Opposition, he said that the country does not want a situation where someone will be the prime minister for six months and then someone else will take over the top post for the next six months. He was addressing a press conference in Kolkata.

He added that people don't want an unstable government formed by a stopgap arrangement.

The Minister slammed the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government for alleged electoral malpractice and unleashing violence on BJP workers in West Bengal.

“Unfortunately West Bengal has been tuned into a laboratory of thuggery by TMC and its leaders. It shows that TMC leaders do not believe in democracy and the Constitution. Yesterday midnight one of our workers was murdered,” said Naqvi.

He accused the Election Commission of not being proactive. “We have repeatedly urged the EC that TMC was subverting democracy in Bengal. But unfortunately they have not been as proactive as they should have been. Perhaps the reason behind it is that the local administration, hijacked by TMC goons are not cooperating,” he said.