Mamata Banerjee bats for opposition unity.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she would invite Communist leaders including Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan among other leaders at the Brigade rally in central Kolkata on January 19 which is touted be an assembly of all the major anti-BJP forces.
“CPI(M) leaders say all sorts of things about me almost everyday because they don’t have any principles but I still feel, not all Left leaders are bad. In the January 19 rally at Brigade I will invite Kerala Chief Minister, some other RSP, Forward Bloc and CPI leaders among other leaders of regional parties. Whether they will come or not is up to them,” Mamata told mediapersons after a core committee meeting with party MPs, MLAs and other elected representatives at the Trinamool Congress party headquarters on Friday. She said while other leaders such as Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Lalu Prasad, MK Stalin, Sonia Gandhi, and Rahul Gandhi have been invited at the rally, others such as Patidar leader Hardik Patel, Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani are also likely to grace the mega opposition rally.
“We have already received confirmation from Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah,” Mamata said.
She said that it had been apprehended in the meeting that there could be attempts to disrupt situation in Bengal during the festive season at the behest of forces from Delhi. “All have been asked to be alert against all such attempts and not to fall prey to any provocations. When BJP was not in power in Uttar Pradesh, they used to spark trouble everyday during the reign of Akhilesh Yadav. It is their culture. We want BJP to be defeated convincingly in the forthcoming election and that they don’t get even a single seat from Bengal. We will urge everyone to fight them in a democratic manner,” she said.
She alleged that the BJP was trying to intimidate TMC with several Central agencies such as the IT, CBI, ED and ‘manipulated and moneypulated news’. “The TMC is not afraid of these,” she said. Asked about Mayawati’s dumping Congress ahead of the elections in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, she said, “I cannot say anything about her decision. She is a party president. I have invited all. We need everybody. All I can say is that all parties must come together against the BJP.” A publicity campaign committee under the leadership of TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikary and Avishek Banerjee has been formed to organise the rally.
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