Didi plays the emotional card to take the heat off the Narada sting.
With the Narada sting becoming a major issue in the ongoing West Bengal Elections, CM Mamata Banerjee has been forced to go into a backfoot after completely rubbishing the expose in the beginning.
After reaching out to voters saying that she would have contemplated changing candidates who were seen in the Narada tapes had they been aired before, Didi has taken a step forward. Addressing a rally in support of State Minister Manish Gupta in Jadavpur, Mamata said that, "If you think I am a thief, don't give votes. If people don't want, I will go out of power," reports Anandabazar Patrika.
She also said that Manish is not a thief and asked people to vote for him. According to political observers, this is a calculated move by Didi to leverage her political clout to wriggle out of a dicey situation. Although many of the top TMC leaders were caught taking bribes in the Narada sting, Mamata wasn't. She still enjoys the perception of having a clean image. Hence, essentially she is making an emotional plea to the voters to give votes for TMC based on her image, ignoring other surrounding paraphernalia.
Didi also expressed confidence that her party has reached the majority mark, while CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra made a claim that the CPI(M)-Congress alliance would win 200 seats.
"Today the fourth phase of polls was held. If I understand politics, after this phase of polls we have already attained the majority mark needed to form the new government. You can check it when the results are announced," Banerjee said at the same rally. The TMC chief claimed that her government in the last five years had undertaken various development projects and turned Bengal into the favourite industrial destination.
Meanwhile, expressing confidence about the success of the (Congress-Left) alliance in the election, Mishra claimed, "After the first three phases of polling we said we will surely win in over 100 seats, but after today's polls we aim for 200...seats. And the alliance of the people is heading towards that." Echoing the party supremo, TMC leader Mukul Roy also claimed that Trinamool has reached the majority figure after Monday's polling.
West Bengal State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury, on the other hand, claimed that the Trinamool Congress would cease to exist after the results were announced on May 19.
Chowdhury said people had been able to resist the terror tactics of the TMC.
Elections have been held in 216 seats till Monday. Polling for the remaining 78 seats in two more phases is scheduled to take place on April 30 and May 5.
With PTI inputs
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