Leaders of opposition parties such as the Congress, NCP, RJD and the DMK attended the Trinamool Congress' Martyrs' Day event in Delhi where West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's speech giving a clarion call to anti-BJP parties to unite was streamed live.
Addressing the Martyrs' Day rally in Kolkata online, she accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to establish a "surveillance state" and pitched for opposition unity to oust the "authoritarian" BJP dispensation in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Unlike other Martyrs' Day rally on July 21, which is the TMC's flagship annual political event drawing massive crowd to the heart of Kolkata for the keynote address by the party chief, this year's event was streamed live across Punjab, Tripura, Tamil Nadu, New Delhi, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.
The day is observed to commemorate the 13 West Bengal Youth Congress workers who were killed in a police firing in 1993 during a demonstration led by Mamata Banerjee, then a firebrand Youth Congress leader.
Opposition party leaders like the Congress' P Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh, DMK's Tiruchi Siva, NCP's Sharad Pawar and Supriya Sule and RJD's Manoj Jha attended the TMC's Martyrs' Day function in Delhi.
In Delhi, the speech was shown on a giant screen put up at the Constitution Club. In attendance were party MPs who are in Delhi for the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament.
The party also relaunched its mouthpiece 'Jago Bangla' with Banerjee's new slogan: 'Ebar Shopoth, Cholo Dilli (New Pledge, Chalo Delhi)'.
Mamata Banerjee is expected to be in Delhi on July 25 for four days.
Published 21 July 2021, 16:15 IST