Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday made a significant overture to the Congress and the CPI(M), urging them to bury their differences with her party and put up a united front against the BJP in West Bengal under the INDIA bloc.
KOLKATA — TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday made a significant overture to the Congress and the CPI(M), urging them to bury their differences with her party and put up a united front against the BJP in West Bengal under the INDIA bloc.
Her appeal at the annual Martyrs' Day rally of her faction of the TMC here marked a notable shift in the party's tone in a state where it, the Congress and the Left have been bitter rivals despite being constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc at the national level.
While seeking opposition unity, Banerjee firmly shut the door on dissidents within her party, declaring that "traitors" would never be taken back.
"I want everyone to unite under the INDIA bloc in Bengal to fight the BJP. I don't have any ego. I urge others also to keep aside their differences and fight together," the former West Bengal chief minister said.
"I appeal to all those fighting the BJP in Bengal to come together," she said without mentioning any party by name.
Over successive Assembly and parliamentary elections, Congress and the CPI(M) have accused the TMC of helping the BJP politically, a charge repeatedly rejected by Banerjee.
Her overtures are seen as an attempt by the TMC chief to reclaim the broader anti-BJP space in Bengal at a time when her own party is grappling with its biggest organisational split since its inception.
"I challenge the traitors to directly join the BJP and fight elections," she said, accusing the dissidents of functioning as proxies of the saffron party.
Addressing the rally, Banerjee accused Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari of using the state machinery to weaken the TMC. Without naming her one-time confidant who turned bete noire after switching over to the BJP in 2020, the TMC supremo said he could expose his deeds during his decade-long stay in her party.
"If I open my mouth, I will reveal everything about what you did during your 10 years in the Trinamool. I will expose your mask...If BJP is defeated at the Centre, the government here too will be on shaky ground," she said.
Banerjee alleged that investigative agencies and the police were being used to target the opposition and nearly 14,000 criminal cases have been filed against TMC leaders and workers since the BJP formed the government in West Bengal.
"I have never seen such a CID. They have filed around 14,000 cases against our leaders and workers. Their work deserves a place in the Guinness Book," she remarked sarcastically.
Referring to her earlier attempt to visit Baruipur after a girl's rape and murder, Banerjee claimed she had effectively been placed under house surveillance.
She also accused the BJP government of pursuing policies that had hurt hawkers, mid-day meal workers and beneficiaries of welfare schemes while failing to honour promises such as payment of dearness allowance to state government employees.
Turning to the Martyrs Day programme, Banerjee alleged that BJP workers had tried to sabotage the event by vandalising the stage and snapping electricity connections on Monday night.
"They attacked our stage and tried every trick to ensure that we could not hold the programme," she alleged, deriding the BJP as a "barbed-wire party".
Banerjee thanked the Calcutta High Court for permitting the rally and expressed gratitude to the families of those killed in the 1993 police firing for attending the programme "despite temptations, intimidation and deprivation".
She accused the BJP of hypocrisy on religious issues, saying, "Not just the Ram Temple, donation boxes of various temples in Bengal are being looted by the BJP."
Referring to the alleged irregularities in examinations, she asked whether the BJP could bring back the students who died allegedly because of the examination irregularities.
"If needed, I will join a protest staged by Cockroach Janata Party," she said and announced that she would soon begin touring districts across Bengal.
Martyrs' Day traces its origins to July 21, 1993, when 13 Youth Congress workers were killed in police firing during a rally led by Mamata Banerjee at Esplanade during the Left Front regime. The Congress had declared the day as Martyrs' Day in memory of those killed.
After Mamata Banerjee disassociated from the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress in the late 1990s, her party gradually took over the annual observance, holding massive rallies at Dharmatala every year.
With the TMC suffering a rift after losing Assembly polls this year, the observance was quite lacklustre this year, with the Mamata Banerjee faction and the rebel group led by Ritabrata Banerjee holding separate programmes.