West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday tore into the BJP-led Central government saying that her party the Trinamool Congress (TMC) would begin a campaign 'BJP hatao desh bachao' from August 1 till Independence Day.
"There will be various programmes from August 1 to 15 for 'BJP hatao desh bachao' campaign. We will urge the people to ensure that the BJP does not give a speech at the Red Fort in 2019," Mamata said at the 25th anniversary of Martyrs' Day at Esplanade in central Kolkata on Saturday.
"We will have to take a pledge today that the TMC will win all the 42 of 42 MP seats in West Bengal to become a decisive force in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls," she said.
Referring to the tent collapse during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Bengal, the Chief Minister said, "Our leaders will conduct a rally at the same ground at West Midnapore where the BJP tent collapsed. They can't even manage a tent, how can they manage a country?"
On the no trust motion at the Parliament on Friday, Mamata said the BJP won because they got support within the house and that there is no support for them outside the house, among common people.
Predicting 2019 polls she said, "MK Stalin (DMK working president) will defeat AIADMK in Tamil Nadu sweeping all the seats. If Akhilesh and Mayawati come together in UP, the BJP will get at least 50 seats less in the 80 seats that they have now. In Madhya Pradesh they had won 28 seats, but now I doubt if they will get even eight. In Rajasthan where they had won 25 they will not even win five this time. They will get no seats in Gujarat. Laluji will take away Bihar, Naveen Patnaik in Odisha and Amarinder Singh in Punjab. They have 300 seats now. At most they will get 150 next year. All I am saying is that they will not get a majority," Mamata said.
At the rally, Chandan Mitra, former BJP lawmaker, joined the TMC. Speculations were on after he had put in his resignation to the BJP national president that he was likely to join TMC as a result of what has been described as his 'dissatisfaction with the party'. Along with him, four Congress MLAs – Abu Taher Khan, Akhruzzaman, Samar Mukhopadhyay and Sabina Yasmin – and expelled CPI(M) leaders – Mainul Hassan and Ritabrata Banerjee – too joined the TMC.
She also said that Congress and CPI(M) should clear their stands. "They are fighting the BJP at the Centre and are joining hands here against the TMC. We don't need their support here. We alone are good enough to tackle BJP in Bengal," she added.
BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha reacted to Mamata's comments saying, "She has got afraid of the growing popularity of BJP in Bengal. Her party has unleashed atrocities on our party men but she should remember that these tactics could not stop the downfall of CPI(M) and these would not stop the TMC's end too." Sinha said that in Dec-Jan there will be rath yatra across the state and on January 23 it will end with a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground which will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said that Mamata had introduced poaching tactics of MLAs with the help of a carrot and stick formulae. "If you are not enticed by the carrot, she will beat you up with the stick and make you defect to TMC. She has murdered democracy in Bengal and many of our men have succumbed to her. We have been against her and will continue to be so," Chowdhury said.
