'Trinamool not a Bengali party, I work for all of India': Mamata in poll-bound Meghalaya
GUWAHATI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the TMC is not a party of West Bengal or the Bengalis as projected by its critics but of all India.
On her maiden visit to Shillong in election-bound Meghalaya, Banerjee picked solely the BJP for her attack.
The BJP, which has two MLAs, is a constituent of the state’s ruling coalition which the National People’s Party (NPP) heads.
“There is a rumour that the Trinamool Congress is a Bengali party. If it is a Bengali party, why do people sing the national song and the national anthem, which were written by Bankim Chandra (Chatterjee) and Rabindranath (Tagore) respectively?” Banerjee asked.
She said “Jai Hind” was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s slogan and that Mother Teresa had received the Nobel Peace Prize from Kolkata. She asked if people would say all these personalities belonged only to Bengal and not India.
“Why do you divide people on the basis of caste and religion? Let us walk, think and speak together,” Banerjee said. “I am a Bengali too and I am proud of it. I work for all of India. I served in several ministries and am a seven-time former MP. You can’t say I cannot come here because I am a Bengali,” she added.
Attacking the BJP, she said the party is “jealous” of the TMC. She said the BJP had tried its best and “misused” power in the last West Bengal elections but could not defeat the TMC which won by two/a third majority.
She criticised the Meghalaya government on the recent firing incident on the Assam border that left six persons dead. She visited the houses of the five victims from Meghalaya and offered financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh each.
The TMC supremo promised that if TMC is voted to power, it will offer monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000 each to one woman of every family in the state.
Banerjee made several other promises, including solving the border dispute. “You voted for so many parties. Vote for the TMC this time around. Our intention is not to control Meghalaya from Kolkata. You will rule it. We will advise and guide you,” the Bengal CM said.
Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee said Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who heads the NPP, “deposited his spine and everything in Delhi”.
The TMC general secretary also slammed the state government over the border firing incident. “The victims’ families are shattered. No party stood by them. Not a single perpetrator was taken to task. Nobody was even called for interrogation,” he said.
The TMC had no base in Meghalaya but in November last year, 12 of the 17 Congress MLAs jumped ship, making the Banerjee-led party the state’s principal opposition dramatically overnight.
One of the MLAs, Himalaya Shangpliang, ditched the party recently to join the BJP.