India
Updated : Aug 30, 2014, 09:49 AM IST
Trinamool Congress head and the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, said that her party is keeping the door open for the Left to stop the growth of BJP in the state. If a proposal comes, TMC might join hands with CPM, Mamata Banerjee said in an interview to 24 Ghanta, a Bengali news channel belonging to the Zee Group.
On the question of alliance between Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar in Bihar, she said, it should have happened much faster. No one is untouchable in politics. She said TMC has compromised earlier also in alliances, and it would do again if need be. That is when she said she was open to talks with CPIM as well.
Recently, former Bihar chief ministers and bitter political rivals for over two decades, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, joined hands for elections to stop the growing influence of BJP in the state.
Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly and CPM politburo member Suryakanta Mishra said that Mamata Banerjee must apologise for her earlier mistakes, before fighting secularism. He said Mamata had joined hands with BJP and she was the reason that BJP came to West Bengal.
“A battle for secularism has to be started. If she wants to join that battle, she has to admit her earlier mistakes like allying with the BJP and sending flowers to (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi. She has to further restore democracy in Bengal. Those are the preconditions of starting the battle,” Mishra told Indian Express.
Mamata Banerjee, however said, she was not worried about BJP's presence in the state. She said, "Let them first win at least 5 seats in the Assembly elections in the state." She said she allied with BJP for Atal Bihari Vajpayee. She said BJP does not respect Vajpayee anymore, and the new leadership does not know how to win people's hearts.
Regarding the question of FDI, she strongly opposed the NDA policy of FDI in defence and railways. She said, the PPP model is acceptable as the domestic players might want to join hands with foreign players, but the need to protect the private players cannot be overlooked. She said, she was not against big business houses, but creating monopolies would ruin all small businessmen, and she would not allow that.
She listed out the investments the state has attracted and the schemes like NREGA and Kanyashree they are running successfully. She said she has created a land bank depending on wherever land was available and was giving out land from there. She said the business houses were welcome to take responsibilities for polytechnic or ITI colleges run by the state. The state would feel some relief and the company could get skilled workers for itself.