After her recent involvement in a major showdown with the Narendra Modi government over CBI sleuths attempting to question the Kolkata top cop, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was at her aggressive best at an Opposition rally in the national capital. She brought the fight closer home to Modi, launching a blistering attack against the ruling dispensation.
Mamata, who was the star speaker at the rally organised by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at Jantar Mantar, minced no words as she attacked Modi, remarking that today was, for all practical purposes, his last day as prime minister, since it was the last day of the present Lok Sabha term, and declared that the Opposition parties will hold a massive rally in the Ramlila Maidan after defeating the Modi government.
“There are now two Gabbars—Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. And, they are trying to scare everyone. We are not scared of them. We will fight them and we will defeat them,” Mamata said addressing the 'Remove Dictatorship, Save Democracy Satyagraha'.
While emphasising upon the need for the Opposition to stay united, the Trinamool Congress supremo, in her speech, also conveyed a message to the Congress, to allow regional parties who hold sway in their respective states to fight the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections.
“I have maintained that whoever is strong in a particular state should fight Modi. In Bengal, we are strong. In Andhra Pradesh, it is Chandrababu Naidu who is strong. In Delhi, the AAP will fight Modi. In Uttar Pradesh, BSP and SP are strong. The Congress is strong in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and in other states, so it can contest there,” she said.
Referring to the Congress and the Left coming together in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections, she said the alliance will not damage the Trinamool's prospects and it will emerge victorious in all 42 seats in the state.
Amidst speculation that Mamata was upset with the Congress and the Left adopting an aggressive stance against the Trinamool in the Lok Sabha today regarding the chit fund scam, she said, “We will fight the Congress and the CPI(M) in the state. But we will be together at the national level.”
The rally was yet another attempt to display Opposition unity ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Contrary to speculation, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party attended the rally, which was expected to be primarily a show of strength of an emerging sub-grouping within the Opposition bloc, comprising mainly the Trinamool, the TDP, the AAP, the NCP and the JD(S). The BSP, however, did not attend the rally.
