Mamata Banerjee derides Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's controversial comment

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today asked the people to choose between development and CPI(M)'s removal instead of West Bengal chief minister's controversial suggestion of "Left Front or death".

"What kind of a chief minister is he who tells the people to choose between the Left Front and death? Does he have any respect for democracy? We say, the choice is between development or the removal of the CPI(M)," Banerjee told a public rally at the Utsav Maidan here.

At a Left Front public meeting in Kolkata on December 30, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had said that the choice before the people of the state was "the Left or death."

"I wonder how people of any other state would have reacted had their chief minister said this," Banerjee said.

Accusing the CPI(M) of using the police and armed goons to fight opponents, she challenged the ruling party to take on Trinamool activists in an unarmed battle.

"Let them fight us without guns and police help. I want to see who is stronger -- CPI(M) harmads (armed goons) or the dedicated Trinamool activists," she said.