Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Thursday, said she will join hands with her counterparts in Bihar and Jharkhand and other opposition parties to stop the BJP from coming to power in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. She said the saffron party will face the anger of people because of its arrogance.
“I, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren and many others will come together in 2024. All opposition parties will join hands to defeat the BJP. All of us will be on one side and the BJP on the other. The BJP's arrogance of 300 seats will be its nemesis. There will be Khela Hobe' in 2024,” she said while addressing a programme in Kolkata.
The WB CM claimed that the arrest of Jharkhand MLAs with hordes of cash by West Bengal police recently stopped the horse trading in the neighbouring state and prevented the fall of Hemant Soren government.
Three Congress MLAs from Jharkhand were arrested after their vehicle was intercepted at Panchla in Howrah district of West Bengal on July 30 and nearly Rs 49 lakh in cash was found in the car. They claimed that the money was meant for buying sarees for an Adivasi festival in their state.
The Congress, which is a part of the JMM-led government in Jharkhand, has claimed that the BJP was trying to topple the Soren government by offering Rs 10 crore each and ministerial berth to the MLAs.
She slammed the opposition, especially the BJP, and a section of the media for allegedly unleashing a malicious campaign against her and her party leaders following the arrest of senior leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal by central agencies in different cases.
CM to skip inauguration of Netaji statue in Delhi
Banerjee said she will not be part of an event to inaugurate the statue of 28-foot statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Delhi, saying the invite that was extended to her was not proper.
The CM said she got a letter from an undersecretary on Wednesday saying the PM will inaugurate the Netaji statue at 7 pm and she is expected to be there at the venue at 6pm. "As if I am their servant. How can an undersecretary write to a chief minister? Why has the culture minister become so big," she asked.
—With PTI inputs
