LS polls: We are, will be part of INDIA at national level, says Mamata

A day after announcing that he would extend outside support to the opposition front INDIA after it comes to power, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she is very much part of the anti-BJP alliance at the national level and would form the next government with it.

While addressing an election rally at Tamluk, Banerjee said that the TMC is not in alliance with the CPI(M) and the Congress in West Bengal.

"At all India level, some people have misunderstood my statement yesterday. I am very much part of the INDIA alliance. The INDIA alliance was my brainchild. We are together at the national level and will continue to be together. INDIA bloc was brought together by me. We will form a government with that alliance and we are a part of it," she said.

Banerjee alleged that the West Bengal units of both CPI(M) and Congress, who are part of the INDIA alliance, have joined hands and helped the BJP in the state.

"Do not count on the CPI(M) and the Congress in Bengal. They are not with us, they are with the BJP here. I am talking about that (INDIA bloc) in Delhi," she said.

The TMC boss urged the people not to vote for anyone other than TMC candidates in Bengal.

Banerjee on Wednesday said her party will extend support to the opposition INDIA bloc from outside to form the government at the Centre.

Expressing scepticism about the BJP's ambitious target of achieving 400 seats in the Lok Sabha elections, she said people will reject them.

"The entire country has understood that the BJP is a party full of thieves. We (TMC) will support the INDIA bloc from outside to form a government at the Centre. We will extend our support so that in Bengal, our mothers and sisters never face a problem... and those who work in the 100 days' job scheme, also do not face problems," Banerjee had said.

The TMC had walked out of the INDIA bloc in West Bengal in January but asserted that she would continue to be part of the opposition bloc at the national level.

The TMC supremo was addressing a rally in Tamluk, under which comes the Nandigram assembly constituency from where she had lost to the BJP in the 2021 state polls.
 

On Thursday, she vowed to avenge the defeat as she asserted that the poll results didn't reflect the people's mandate.

"As far as Nandigram is concerned, I have said it before, I was betrayed. There was rigging and votes were looted. The mandate was stolen by the BJP through unscrupulous means. They disconnect the power supply at the counting centre. I had moved court against it. But either today or tomorrow I will avenge my defeat. I will avenge this injustice," she said.

The anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram in 2007 against the then Left Front government was instrumental in the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress' rise to power in 2011 in Bengal.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari defeated Banerjee by 1,956 votes in Nandigram in the 2021 assembly polls.

Vowing not to allow the implementation of CAA and NRC in the state, she said, "If people do not want divisive CAA-NRC or UCC that will erase our diversity, they must vote against the BJP."

"The BJP must be voted out of power. When the INDIA government comes to power, we will abolish CAA, NRC, and UCC. The BJP knows that as long as I am here, I will not allow CAA-NRC in Bengal," she said.