Desperate Mamata in TDP rally to project herself as national

Senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain Monday claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addressed a TDP rally in Andhra Pradesh as she is "desperate" to project herself as a national leader.

"She (Banerjee) is losing ground in her own state and going to Andhra Pradesh to address the TDP's rally. This is a desperate attempt to project herself as a national leader. I want to ask - apart from Bengal where else TMC has presence," Hussain said while addressing a press conference here.

The TMC supremo is afraid of the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as she knows very well that people of Bengal have made up their mind to defeat her, he claimed.

Banerjee participated at a rally of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday.

Reacting to Banerjee's appeal in the rally to BJP's "sister organisations" to not support Modi and party chief Amit Shah during the Lok Sabha polls, Hussain wondered who is she to ask others whether or not to back Modi.

"We have our allies. We want to know who is her allies. Our allies are firmly with us and all of us will fight the polls together," he said.

Exuding confidence that the BJP would win more than 23 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, Hussain said the Trinamool Congress will face a complete rout in the elections.

On National Conference leader Omar Abdullah's reported pitch for a separate prime minister for Jammu and Kashmir, Hussain said, "It hardly matters whether or not Article 370 is there. But his dream of having a separate prime minister will never be fulfilled."