Mamata confident of regime change in 2019

Exuding confidence of a regime change at the centre after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said the anti-BJP opposition parties have joined hands and things would be clear within six months.

"There will be a change (at the Centre) in 2019. We are all waiting for it.," Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress chief, said at a programme here.

She said though a front is yet to be cobbled up, the opposition parties have started working together.

"No front has come up as yet. But the opposition parties have come on a platform. They have started working. Wait for six months, and see the results, things will be clear," she said replying to a question at 'Rising Bengal-2017, Setting the Development Agenda' event organised by Network18.

Accusing the Narendra Modi government of using central agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate to silence opposition voices, she said with the Lok Sabha polls still close to two years away, opposition leaders would not speak "so soon".

"The opposition leaders will not speak so soon. Because, if they do otherwise, the central agencies will be unleashed on them."

Replying to a query, Banerjee said "everyone was scared".

In an apparent reference to the CBI and ED probing the Narada sting footage and Saradha ponzi scheme scams - in which a number of high-raking leaders of her party have been under the scanner - Banerjee said: "I can sustain the centre's atrocities. The centre is sending these agencies to scare out leaders. But others (other opposition leaders) may not."

Taking a dig at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who has joined hands with the BJP after breaking his Janata Dal-United's alliance with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, she said the political development in Bihar would have no impact.as the opposition has hundreds of capable leaders.

In this context, she named rebel JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

"You are thinking about one Nitish Kumar, but I am thinking about 100 Sharad Yadavs, 100 Lalu Prasads, 100 Akhilesh Yadavs," said Banerjee.

--IANS

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