West Bengal CPI(M) criticises TMC's rally

The West Bengal CPI(M) Saturday criticised the Trinamool Congress for allegedly "destroying democracy and institutions" in the state and boasting of fighting against the misrule of the BJP at Centre.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) state secretary and politburo member Surya Kanta Mishra said, the TMC and BJP were two sides of the same coin and share several "undemocratic traits".

"The TMC should not talk about restoring democracy in the country. They (TMC) themselves have destroyed democracy in the state and have subverted every institution in the state since it came to power in 2011," Mishra said.

"The way they conducted the last panchayat polls is a blot on democracy," he added.

What the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has been doing at the Centre since 2014, the TMC has been doing the same in West Bengal since 2011, she said further.

The TMC as a political party has neither any respect for democracy not for the constitutional norms, she added.

Issuing a war cry 'Delhi mein sarkar badal do' (change the government at the Centre), Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee Saturday asserted that the "expiry date" of the Narendra Modi government was over and a united opposition will win in the coming general elections.

Setting the tone for the Lok Sabha polls, leaders of 22 opposition parties came together at a mega rally here and declared to unitedly fight to oust the Modi government which had passed its "expiry date".

The CPI(M)-led Left Front which too was invited for the opposition rally decided to give it a miss.