Banerjee said the victory in assembly elections in four states is not a true reflection of the people's mandate and accused the saffron camp of looting votes by using the election machinery.
Tag: Mamata Banerjee
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‘SIT probe would yield nothing but rubbish’: Adhir questions Mamata’s silence on Anis Khan’s death
By PTI
KOLKATA: Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury Saturday questioned the silence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the mysterious death of student activist Anis Khan and said that she has forgotten the Muslims who had reposed faith in her since her party’s win in the state election.
Chowdhury, who is also the WBPCC president, alleged that the state government is trying to hide the truth behind the incident and stop investigation into it.
Chowdhury, who met the the student activist’s family members at their house at Amta in Howrah district during the day, claimed that the special investigating team formed by the state government to probe the death “would yield nothing but rubbish”.
He raked up the death of Rizwanur Rahman, a graphics trainer, who according to the CBI probe was driven to commit suicide in 2007.
“Didi (Banerjee) had spearheaded the movement following Rizwanur’s death because she had no option then. Now because the elections are over, the Muslims have been dumped by her.”
Rizwanur was found dead near the rail track in Kolkata in Sptember 2007, a month after his marriage to the daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi.
The Supreme Court had in March 2011 had asked CBI proceed with the case as suicide.
The death had rocked the state and Banerjee had spearheaded a movement against the then Left Front government of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and demanded the CBI probe into it.
“Why is the chief minister silent in this case? Why hasn’t she sent any of her ministers to meet Anis’ family members? The people of Bengal want to know the mystery behind his death.
But it seems that the state government is trying to stop the investigation as the chief minister and the TMC government are trying to hide the truth behind the death.
We will not let them succeed in that,” Chowdhury told reporters.
“There will be no investigation done by the SIT. Nobody will believe that a civic police man would kill somebody unless he was ordered”.
A civic police man was among the four police personnel who had reportedly forced their way into Anis’ house on the night of February 18 and took him to its second floor.
His body was later found by his family members from outside the building.
Chowdhury alleged that Anis’s family members are being given death threats to force them withdraw their demand for a CBI probe.
He said that Congress will move the National Human Rights Commission in the case.
“We will continue with our protests and if needed help Anis’ family to meet President Ram Nath Kovind and take the case to the National Commission for Minorities”.
Chowdhury also was critical about the state government’s Deucha Pachami coal project and questioned its “commercial viability”.
“Nobody is willing to invest here. This is a concealed coalfield and several hundred metres have to be dug to get coal. Nobody knows whether this will be a viable project or not,” he said.
The the state government is yet to publish any notification with regard to the project though it has already planned to evacuate around 21,000 people from the area, he said.
The state government is investing about Rs 35,000 crore in this project which is spread across 3.
04 lakh acres and Banerjee has announced jobs for one member of each family that donates land, besides increasing the compensation package.
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BJP is ‘losing’ in Uttar Pradesh: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee while campaigning for Samajwadi Party
By PTI
VARANASI: Describing herself as a “fighter”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that she was attacked by BJP workers after she arrived for campaigning in Uttar Pradesh in support of the Samajwadi Party.
“I was coming from the airport yesterday and going to the (Dashashwamedh) ghat. Midway, some BJP workers, who have nothing in their brain except violence, stopped my vehicle. They hit my car, pushed me and told me to go back,” Banerjee claimed.
“It was then that I thought, they are going out (of power). They are completely gone, their defeat is imminent,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief said.
Banerjee said she was in Uttar Pradesh for a political meeting and wondered why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was so bothered about it.
“I am not a coward, I am a fighter. I have fought for a long time. The CPM attacked me in the past, I was attacked with sticks and shots were fired at me several times in the past. But I never bowed down,” she added.
Banerjee said when “abuses were being hurled” at her on Wednesday, she got down from the car and stood silent for some time to see what the attackers could do.
“I wanted to see what you can do. How much strength you have. But you are a coward. I saw it and thanked them. They attacked my car, pushed me. I said thank you because I knew the message is clear that the BJP is losing, why else attack me,” she claimed.
She said if her coming to Uttar Pradesh once can ensure BJP’s defeat, she would come to the state a thousand times.
“It’s not so easy, Khela hoga,” Banerjee said, referring to the Hindi variation of the Bangla phrase which was the poll anthem of the TMC in West Bengal elections last year in which it defeated the BJP.
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UP elections: Mamata shown black flags in BJP stronghold Varanasi
Express News Service
GORAKHPUR: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, who landed in Varanasi on Wednesday to campaign in support of Samajwadi Party, was shown black flags while on her way to Dashashwamedh ghat from airport.
As soon as Mamata proceeded to Dashashwamedh ghat, she was faced protests at several places when BJP supporters showed her black flags first in Chetganj locality and then at Godowliya.
In Chetganj, on seeing the black flags by a crowd shouting Jai Shree Ram, the west bengal CM lost her cool, stopped the car and came out on the road.
Pushing the protestors, Mamta dared the BJP workers to come forward with black flags.
“You all are losing the elections. These are not black flags but your fear of losing elections,” she shouted on the mike.
The west bengal CM also shouted the slogan : “Jai UP, Jai Hind.”
Subsequently, as she proceeded further, she was shown black flags at Gowdowliya. However, the district police pushed the protestors aside.
On getting the information about protests, SP workers gathered at Godowliya crossing in retaliation. Both the groups of protestors came face to face to be sent away by the cops.
Then Mamata Banerjee reached Dashashwamedh ghat and paid obeisance at Ganga Mandir. She also watched the famous Ganga Arti while sitting on the stairs of the ghat.
Mamata is expected to address a couple of rallies along with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in and around Varanasi which will vote in final phase on March 7.
Mamata is scheduled to stay in Varanasi for the next two days.
However, in the wake of protests against the west bengal CM, the district administration has beefed up the security.
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Centre should realise humanity is more important than politics: Mamata Banerjee on Russia-Ukraine crisis
By PTI
KOLKATA: Asserting that it is the Centre’s responsibility to bring back Indians stranded in war-hit Ukraine, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the Union government should realise that humanity is more important than politics.
She also urged the NDA government at the Centre to take lead in peace talks.
“It is the Union government’s responsibility to bring back Indians stuck in war-hit Ukraine. The Centre should ensure safe return of all the stranded Indians. I am in favour of peace, not war. The COVID-19 pandemic has already destroyed a lot. India can lead talks to maintain world peace, Banerjee said.
Her comments came a day after a medical student from Karnataka’s Haveri district was killed in intense shelling in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, marking India’s first casualty in the war.
Banerjee was speaking to reporters here before leaving for Uttar Pradesh to campaign for the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing assembly polls there.
“Humanity is more important than politics and the central government should realise this. Lives of students are more important than politics,” she said.
Asked whether her request for an all-party meeting has received any response, Banerjee said, “I have done my duty. Now it is for them to decide. Maybe they are busy with elections.”
Banerjee had offered unconditional support to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the Ukraine crisis and requested him to consider calling an all-party meeting to take a united stand on the issue.
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In a first of sorts, Bengal Guv summons Assembly session at 2 AM acting on typo in state government’s recommendation
By PTI
KOLKATA: In what may be a first of sorts in legislative history, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday summoned West Bengal’s legislature for a session well past mid-night at 2 AM on March 7.
Dhankar said he was merely acting on the recommendation of the Mamata Banerjee-led cabinet which he described as “unusual”, though both state government officials as well as the state’s speaker Biman Banerjee said the request for calling the assembly session at 2 AM was a case of a simple “typographical error” where PM became AM.
If the session is indeed called at 2 AM at night, it will mean legislators will have to literally burn the midnight oil as well as Governor Dhankar who would have to give his opening speech at that odd hour.
Independent India’s Parliament held a session where Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made his famous “tryst with destiny” speech at the stroke of mid-night.
Both the Parliament and many state legislative assemblies have stretched their debates and discussions to timings past midnight to address urgent business, but rarely if ever has a house been summoned at such a late hour.
In a tweet, Dhankar said that finding the timing of the session “after midnight somewhat odd,” he had called the state Chief Secretary for urgent consultation before noon Thursday.
However, “there was usual compliance failure,” he complained.
Thereafter, he took the decision to call the house at the odd hour “accepting the cabinet decision,” the Governor said. “Invoking article 174 (1) of Constitution, accepting Cabinet Decision, Assembly has been summoned to meet on March 7, 2022 at 2.00 A.M,” he tweeted.
“Assembly meeting after midnight at 2.00 A.M. is unusual and history of sorts in making, but that is Cabinet Decision,” Dhankar added.
The Governor in his tweet pointed out the proposal in the cabinet memo which he received the state cabinet said, “Now it is proposed that West Bengal Legislative Assembly may be summoned by Hon’ble Governor on 7.03.2022 at 2am.”
Reacting to the decision, BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, who is also the leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly tweeted “Midnight session !!! State Government’s head is disorder.”
The governor had earlier sent back a recommendation by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for summoning the Assembly for the Budget Session, saying that as per constitutional provision, it must come from the state Cabinet.
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‘National ambitions suddenly awakened’: Sushil Modi takes a dig at KCR’s third front efforts
Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on Tuesday said that the chief ministers of West Bengal, Maharashtra and Telangana have influence limited in their respective states and they are now trying to form a front as their national ambitions suddenly awakened.
Taking to Twitter, Sushil Modi, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, lashed out at the opposition leaders saying that the people have seen the fate of many weak regimes — the governments of VP Singh, Chandrasekhar, HD Deve Gowda and IG Gujaral. “All those governments were rejected outrightly by the people of country,” said Modi, adding that such weak governments would suffer from negativity and prove to be a hindrance in stability and development.
ममता बनर्जी, चंद्रशेखर राव, उद्धव ठाकरे जैसे मुख्यमंत्रियों का प्रभाव केवल संबंधित राज्यों तक है, लेकिन ऐसे जिन लोगों की राष्ट्रीय महत्वाकांक्षा अचानक जगती है, वे कोई फ्रंट बनाने निकल पड़ते हैं।
— Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) February 22, 2022
Modi, who is considered as one of the prominent members of the BJP think-tank at the Centre, further said the country has been emerging as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a massive rise in foreign exchange reserves.“But remember, there was a day during the regime of Chandrasekhar when the country was forced to mortgage gold in London. And now, some opposition leaders are speaking of a front against the Modi government because of their political ambitions.”
ALSO READ | KCR-Uddhav-Pawar meet: Such unity experiments have failed in the past, says Devendra Fadnavis
Predicting an utter failure of an attempt to form an anti-BJP front, Modi said that Mamata Banerjee will never succeed even if she joins hands with Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, KCR and Uddhav Thackeray to challenge the popular leadership of PM Modi and the BJP which has a strong central government and dedicated cadres.
The irony is all these regional parties want to exclude the Congress from the front despite the fact that most of them (parties) are breakaways from the Congress and are dynastic outfits.
“Some leaders who don’t have any pan-India support can raise someone’s name for the big post,”, Modi said.
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Mamata Banerjee to meet CMs of non-BJP ruled states next month to discuss threat to federalism
By Express News Service
KOLKATA: The second meeting of Trinamool Congress’s newly constituted national working committee is likely to be held in Delhi in presence of the party’s chairperson Mamata Banerjee. The date of the meeting is expected to be after March 10, after the announcement of Assembly election results in the five states.
“In the meeting, we may discuss our stance in national politics depending on the results of the Assembly polls in five states. The chief minister herself will chair the meeting and give us the future roadmap in the arena of national politics,’’ said a senior TMC leader.
The leader said the Bengal chief minister and the national working committee may meet the heads of the non-BJP ruled states in March over the issue of the country’s federal structure and overstepping of constitutional rights by governors in the non-BJP states.
Mamata recently communicated with Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin over the issue of constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by governors.
On Friday, Mamata, in the first meeting of the national working committee at her Kalighat residence, reinstated her nephew as the party’s national general secretary inducting three others as vice-president. Earlier Mamata dissolved all posts of the party in the national-level hierarchy.
Former Union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, Subrata Bakshi, and Chandrima Bhattacharya were selected as the vice-president. ‘’Induction of three others in the newly created vice-president post seems to be an attempt to clip Abhishek’s wings as the recent development in the party suggested growing distance between him and the party supremo,’’ said another TMC leader.
Sinha, Bakshi, and Chandrima are believed to be among those who are from Mamata’s close circle.
In the selection process of candidate lists for the upcoming municipal elections in 107 civic bodies scheduled to be held on February 27, Mamata turned down Abhishek’s idea of fielding new faces in the fray. Prashant Kishor’s team IPAC, which was hired on Abhishek’s suggestion, uploaded a candidate list in the party social media platform without Mamata’s approval and the party had to announce a fresh list of candidates.
There was a strong buzz doing the rounds that Abhishek expressed a desire to step down as his earlier post in the hierarchy and Mamata was in no mood to dissuade him.
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Dhankhar urges Mamata to provide information sought at earliest
By PTI
KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has urged Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to provide information sought by him on various issues at the earliest.
Dhankhar, who has been at loggerheads with the TMC government, claimed that his queries have not been responded to. He had on February 15 urged Banerjee to visit him at Raj Bhavan during the week ahead to discuss several issues to avert a “constitutional stalemate”.
The governor, however, said that he has not received any response from her so far.
“Hon’ble CM Mamata Banerjee has been urged to make it convenient for an interaction at Raj Bhavan anytime during the week ahead as lack of response to issues flagged has potential to lead to constitutional stalemate which we both are ordained by our oath to avert.”
“Impressed upon Hon’ble CM Mamata Banerjee that ‘Dialogue, discussion and deliberation, particularly amongst constitutional functionaries, like the Chief Minister and the Governor, are quintessential to democracy and inseparable part of constitutional governance’,” he said in a series of tweets on Thursday.
Dhankhar urged Banerjee to respond to all issues flagged thus far by him at the earliest.
“There has been no response, now for long, to issues legitimately flagged,” he said in a letter to Banerjee dated February 15, a copy of which was attached to the tweet.
He said it was the chief minister’s constitutional duty under Article 167 to impart information to the governor.
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24 years since forming TMC, Mamata only grew stronger amid rebellions
By PTI
KOLKATA: TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, who recently quashed a brewing internal rebellion with the iron-fisted rejig of the party’s national working committee, established once again that she was the sole commander in her camp, and no one, including her heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee, was fit to challenge her dominion.
In TMC’s 24-year journey, the Bengal chief minister, who has earned herself the image of a gutsy leader, always made swift comebacks with greater ferocity as and when some leaders in her coterie revolted, and this time was no exception as she barely dithered to clip Abhishek’s wings amid the internal strife between old guard and fresh blood.
According to sources in the party, the recent power struggle that had roots in her backyard, with the increasing demand for a definite retirement age and the ‘one person-one post’ policy, was aimed at phasing out the old guard to make space for young leaders handpicked by Abhishek.
A section of leaders claimed that junior Banerjee was “misguided” by political consultant Prashant Kishor and his I-PAC team, roped in to boost the party’s prospects in elections.
The feisty TMC boss, in her bid to stave off the growing rebellion, quickly dissolved the national-level folios, and formed a new working committee with just 20 members, thereby effectively leaving her as the only person capable of calling the shots in her camp.
“Minimising the role of Abhishek and distancing I-PAC were necessary to end the discord in the camp. Mamata managed the entire thing with such a precision that the battle was won even before it started,” a senior TMC leader, privy to the development, told PTI on condition of anonymity.
Although Abhishek has been made a part of 20-member committee, it is mainly packed with her loyalists.
An undertaking was also signed by party veterans and the Diamond Harbour MP, pledging their complete trust in the leadership of the Mamata Banerjee.
Party insiders feel the move was not just aimed at ending the power tussle; it would also give the TMC boss time to groom her nephew as her heir apparent.
Banerjee’s political journey, if analysed, goes on to show that internal rebellions have shaped her career in a big way over the years.
In the mid-nineties, then Bengal Congress president Somen Mitra and Banerjee had engaged in an inner-party struggle over the control of the state unit, but Mitra managed to retain his post.
The development became a turning point in her life and career as Banerjee left the Congress shortly after to form the Trinamool Congress in 1998. Ten years down the line, Mitra, too, joined the TMC and accepted Banerjee as his leader.
However, in 2014, he returned to the Congress and remained the party’s state president till his death 2020.
After forming her party in 1998, Banerjee had first faced rebellion when founding chairman Pankaj Banerjee quit the camp to return to Congress, just months after it was formed.
Both had later set differences aside, and he retraced his steps to TMC. He was made the Leader of the Opposition from 2001-2006.
Subsequently, differences between the two cropped up again, following which he decided to quit politics.
The second major rebellion was recorded in 2001, when Ajit Panja, one of the founding fathers of the TMC, slammed Banerjee over her decision to quit NDA over the Tehelka scam that had rocked the Union cabinet.
He was placed under suspension for dubbing Banerjee’s decision to leave NDA and align with the Congress as “insane and politically immature”.
Panja unsuccessfully tried to form his political platform by breaking away from the TMC.
In 2003, he returned to the TMC.
Soon after the TMC rejoined the NDA in 2003, Banerjee got a whiff that his colleague and then MP Sudip Bandopadhyay was using his rapport with the BJP leadership to manage a berth in the Union ministry, and immediately expelled the leader for six years. He, too, found his way back to the Mamata Banerjee-led party ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls.
A significant revolt that had affected TMC’s political fortunes was the one led by Subrata Mukerjee, who is often referred to as Banerjee’s political mentor. He switched over to the TMC from the Congress in 1999 and became the mayor of Kolkata after the party won KMC polls in 2000.
In 2005, however, just ahead of the Kolkata civic elections, differences arose between the two, and Banerjee wanted someone else as the party’s mayoral face.
Mukherjee and his loyalists deserted the party and formed a separate platform leading to TMC’s defeat. He then joined the Congress.
Following a gap of five years, Mukherjee was back in the TMC, and was given a berth in the state cabinet. He remained a member in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet till his demise last year. Similar revolts were quelled by her in the years that followed.
As an ally of the Congress-led UPA-2, veteran TMC MP Dinesh Trivedi was made the railway minister in 2011 as Banerjee took charge as Bengal’s chief minister.
A year later, Trivedi’s decision to increase passenger fare did not go down well with Banerjee, and she openly opposed it as “anti-people”.
She asked Trivedi to roll back the announcement, but he refused to oblige.
An infuriated Banerjee got Trivedi replaced as railway minister by the then TMC general secretary Mukul Roy, who immediately rolled back the proposed hike.
Roy, who was the unofficial number 2 in the party from 2011 to 2014, later fell out with Banerjee, following Abhishek’s sudden rise through the party ranks.
He quit the TMC and joined the BJP in 2017, and was appointed as the national vice-president of the saffron party.
In a U-turn after the assembly elections last year, Roy, having won polls on a BJP ticket, returned to the TMC and was termed by its leaders “as one of their own”.
“Mamata Banerjee forgives opponents when they surrender before her. But she never forgets. She is a fighter. The more you challenge her, the more powerful she gets,” a veteran TMC leader told PTI.
Political analysts feel leaders like Banerjee, who have achieved a cult status, never favour challenges within the camp.
“For leaders like Mamata Banerjee, the party revolves around her mass following. Those who challenged her never had a mass following like she does. Leaders may end up finishing their political careers, trying to corner her,” political analyst Suman Bhattacharya said.
Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty claimed that the after-effect in case of Abhishek might be different, given the fact he is a part of the family.
“It seems Mamata Banerjee is not ready to hand over her party’s baton to her nephew right now. She might want to groom him as a political asset. The baton will be handed over to Abhishek once she feels that all his threats have been politically neutralised and her nephew was ready to lead the way,” Chakraborty added.