Will contest Lok Sabha elections alone: Mamata Banerjee
The Trinamool Congress will fight the national election next year “alone with people’s support”, party chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared, virtually punching a 42-seat hole in the opposition alliance for 2024 even before it took off.
Accusing the CPM and the Congress of having a “setting” with the BJP, she said, “If there are unholy alliances, how will Congress fight with BJP? How will Left fight the BJP… How are CPM and Congress claiming to be anti-BJP?”
The reference was to the by-election in Bengal’s Sardighi, where the Congress wrested the assembly seat from the ruling Trinamool.
The Congress, Left and the BJP all have played the “communal card” in Sardighi, Ms Banerjee said. The difference is that the “BJP has played it openly, but CPM and the Congress have played it to a greater extent”.
It was, she said, a lesson that “we should not listen to CPM or the Congress… The ones that work with BJP, we cannot ally with them”.
“In 2024, we will see an alliance between Trinamool and the people. We will not go with any of the other political parties. We will fight alone with people’s support,” Ms Banerjee added in a statement.