West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Congress of playing the minority card to woo voters and asked Muslims to defeat the “Congress-BJP-CPM nexus” in the Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing a workers’ meeting at Lalbagh in Murshidabad district, she said: “The Congress is corrupt, the BJP communal and the CPM destructive. They are in an unholy secret alliance and want to divide your votes. Defeat all of them and elect my nominees who will work for your benefit.” “Yes, we were part of the NDA Government as I thought Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the Prime Minister will never harm the minorities,” she said to reassure Muslims.
Murshidabad is one of the Muslim majority districts in the state and has three Lok Sabha seats which were all won by the Congress in the 2009 polls. While state Congress president and MoS for Railways Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was elected from Baharmpur, Mannan Hussain bagged the Murshidabad seat and President Pranab Mukherjee won from Jangipur. Pranab’s son Abhijit Mukherjee later won the bypoll by a thin margin.
“People of all communities live here in harmony but the Congress and BJP are trying to divide them on communal lines. They are in league with the CPM and want to eat into our vote bank,” she further alleged.
Mamata claimed that her government had worked for the benefit of minorities by implementing various developmental projects including providing land for setting up a branch of Aligarh Muslim University in the district. “What did the Congress MPs you had elected for decades do for you? You twice elected a Congress MP from Jangipur? What did he do for you?” she asked without naming Pranab.
Mamata lamented having forged alliances with the Congress during the last Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.
“We had performed the alliance dharma but the Congress backstabbed us by putting up rebel candidates in constituencies where TMC nominees contested. We cannot forgive these Mir Jafars and the Congress is a party of ‘razakars’. They never championed the cause of minorities,” she said.