Making the intention clear again for Trinamool Congress to contest alone in West Bengal in the Lok Sabha polls this year, party supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that she has made up her mind on these lines since Congress leadership rejected all her proposal in the grand opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
Speaking to the media persons before attending an administrative review meeting at Burdwan, the Chief Minister also launched a scathing attack against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly not informing her about his schedule of Nyay Yatra in West Bengal.
“For the sake of alliance, I could have been informed about the schedule of Nyay Yatra in West Bengal. But I was informed nothing,” the chief minister said.She said that she gave a proposal to Congress to contest from 300 seats while leaving the rest for the other regional parties. “Now we the regional parties will take further decisions only after the Lok Sabha polls are over. The regional parties will remain united,” she said.
Recent hints regarding going alone in West Bengal was given by the Chief Minister at an administration review meeting of the party on January 19 at an organizational meeting of Trinamool Congress when she said that her party is ready to field candidates from all the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state if not taken seriously in the opposition I.N.D.I.A. bloc.
Again at a public meeting on January 22, she accused Congress of allowing the CPI(M) to control the agenda of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc meetings.In the meantime, the state Congress president in West Bengal and five-time Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury too had continued with his salvos against the Chief Minister. Chowdhury even went to the extent of challenging Mamata Banerjee to contest against him in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
The CPI(M) politburo member and the party’s state secretary in West Bengal Md Salim has been invited to participate in the Nyay Yatra rally when it passes through West Bengal.