Bengal opposition parties transferring votes to each other: Mamata

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused opposition parties in West Bengal of transferring votes to one another and said she was least bothered about who emerged as her party's principal opposition.

"It is not my responsibility to know who will come second and who will stand third (in the polls). It is the people's responsibility. We are grateful that people have given us much more support.

"I do not know when 'Ram' (BJP) will become 'Baam' (Left) and when 'Baam' will become 'Ram'. They sometimes transfer votes to one another. We do not do this... sometimes the CPI-M does it, sometimes the Congress, and even the BJP. It doesn't matter to us," Banerjee said here after an administrative meeting.

Her Trinamool Congress on Thursday retained the Kanthi Dakshin assembly seat in Purba Medinipur district as party candidate and former Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya trounced Bharatiya Janata Party's Sourindramohan Jana by over 42,000 votes.

The April 9 by-election was necessitated after Trinamool legislator Dibyendu Adhikari was elected to the Lok Sabha from Tamluk in 2016.

Banerjee announced that Bhattacharya, a Minister of State for Health in the Trinamool Congress govenrnment in its first term, will return to her ministry with an important portfolio. Banerjee also indicated a minor reshuffle in her ministry.

"Chandrima will get an important responsibility. I will make him a minister in Baisakh (first month of Bengali new year begins on April 15). One or two other changes will also be made," she said.

Bhattacharya had lost from Dum Dum (North) in the 2016 assembly polls.

--IANS

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