KOLKATA: Burying the hatchet, former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she has no issue with the CPI-M in national politics, ahead of the INDIA bloc meeting in Delhi on September 30 to finalise its strategy on the demand for Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar’s removal.
Mamata Banerjee is also expected to attend the INDIA bloc meeting scheduled to be held at Delhi’s Constitution Club.
While addressing a meeting in Sreerampur in Hooghly district, the supremo of the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress, a breakaway faction of the erstwhile All India Trinamool Congress, said, “It’s not necessary to verify the colour and which party it belongs to. We will fight together.”
Mamata has already spoken to both Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and CPI-M general secretary MA Baby separately over the phone to chalk out the Opposition’s future course of action against the BJP as well as the CEC.
“The entire country is united. We will fight unitedly and it’s not a necessity to judge who is red, who is blue and who is yellow. The election process must have to be transparent and clean,” the former Bengal Chief Minister said, calling for a united INDIA bloc.
“We won’t judge whether it’s ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’ or ‘Z’ party fighting. We will see the issue first. It hardly matters if any party, cutting across its political colour fights for the people. We will stay with them. They (ECI) have deleted names of 93 lakh voters from electoral rolls in Bengal in the name of the SIR. We had raised questions about the role of Seema Khanna in the Commission first. Using AI technology, they have deleted names of voters. We moved the court against the SIR and included names of 32 lakh voters in the rolls,” she said.
“For the first time, I had named ‘vanish’ Kumar because he (CEC) had vanished names from the voter list. We will continue our fight till the removal of ‘vanish’ Kumar,” she said.
Mamata accused the ruling BJP of attacking her party MLA Kunal Ghosh while he was on the way to Hooghly’s Serampore to attend a public meeting where Mamata was the main speaker.
“BJP hooligans and lumpens are attacking our people. I am rushing to the spot. Let me see,” Mamata told the media on Saturday afternoon ahead of her public meeting in Serampore.
“This has not happened anywhere, not even in African countries. This is happening with the support of the police. They should leave their uniforms and hold the BJP flag.”
An hour before Mamata left her Harish Chatterjee Street residence in Kolkata, eggs were hurled at the vehicle in which Beleghata MLA and Mamata loyalist Kunal Ghosh was travelling near Uttarpara near Kolkata. The vehicle was also attacked with bricks and lathis.
“We are not being allowed to leave from here. Our MLA’s car was damaged. He was attacked by goons. Nobody is being allowed to reach Serampore. Is this right for democracy?” Mamata asked.
Ghosh’s vehicle had reached Uttarpara’s Sakherbazar when a mob shouted “go back” and “thief” chants. Within minutes, eggs were hurled at the vehicle. The Beleghata MLA was seated next to the driver when the attack happened.
Calcutta High Court had on September 17 allowed Mamata to hold a public meeting with the condition of a maximum of 1,000 attendees at the venue ground.
“We had to seek permission from the court to hold this meeting. If they [the BJP] won by a popular mandate, why are they not allowing the Opposition leaders to hold meetings?” Mamata asked. “Why should I have to take the court’s permission to hold meetings? Court has other important matters to attend to. We are being denied auditoriums to hold indoor meetings. How do we go to people?”
