Tag: Mamata Banerjee

  • Deeply hurt by personal attacks, had to quit cabinet: Trinamool Congress MLA Rajib Banerjee

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Shortly after resigning from the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, senior TMC leader Rajib Banerjee on Thursday said that he quit the state forest minister’s post as he was “deeply hurt” by the personal attacks aimed at him for airing grievances against a section of party leaders.

    However, he declined to comment when asked if he plans to quit the party in the days to come. “I had grievances against some of the party’s senior members and informed the leadership about it. I also had a word with party supremo, but nothing happened. Instead, I was personally attacked by a section of the leaders,” he said.

    This is to inform you that I am resigning as the Minister in Charge, Department of Forest, West Bengal from today. pic.twitter.com/dfVq6aVxUj
    — Rajib Banerjee (@RajibBaitc) January 22, 2021

    “I was deeply hurt by the personal attacks aimed at me. Hence, I resigned from the cabinet,” he told reporters after meeting Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at Raj Bhavan.

    The Domjur legislator said earlier, too, he had decided to quit the state cabinet, when removed as the irrigation minister without any notice, but Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had stopped him from doing so back then.

    However, he thanked the chief minister profusely, and said that he would always remain “indebted to her for allowing him to serve the people of the state”.

  • AIMIM exposed after Bihar polls, would not be a factor in Bengal: Mamata

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM would not be a factor in the upcoming assembly polls in the state as its role as “B team of the BJP” has been exposed in the Bihar elections.

    During a meeting in Murshidabad, a Muslim-dominated district, Banerjee urged party leaders to put up a united fight against the BJP and the other divisive forces.

    “During the core committee meeting, Mamata di assured us that AIMIM would not be a factor in Murshidabad district. She told us that Owaisi’s party was exposed after the Bihar polls,” a local TMC leader said.

    Murshidabad district comprises 22 assembly seats.

    In the recently concluded Bihar elections, the AIMIM won five seats in the Muslims-dominated Seemanchal region on the border of West Bengal.

    Earlier this month, Owaisi had met Pirzada Abbas Siddiqui of Hooghly district’s Furfura Sharif to discuss the seat-sharing arrangement.

    The AIMIM chief has already expressed his desire to fight the upcoming assembly elections in the state.

    The TMC had dubbed the AIMIM’s entry in the state as an attempt to split the Muslim votes in the state and help the BJP.

    The AIMIM has termed the allegation as “baseless” and “motivated”.

    A deciding factor in nearly 100-110 seats in the state, Muslims, who constitute 30 per cent of the population, till 2019, have acted as a bulwark of the TMC against its rivals, with most of them voting in favour of the party, considering it to be a “credible” force that can resist the saffron surge.

    In a development that might upset several political equations in election-bound state, Siddiqui on Thursday floated a new political outfit, contending that he wishes to be the kingmaker after the polls.

    The influential Muslim cleric said his new outfit — Indian Secular Front (ISF) – plans to contest the elections from all 294 assembly seats in the state.

    Elections to the Bengal assembly are likely to be held in April-May.

  • West Bengal: Good riddance barb draws two goodbyes

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Hardly 24 hours after the Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s ‘good riddance’ remark on turncoats, two more legislators added their names to the long list of defectors. While Santiur (Nadia) MLA Arindam Banerjee reached Delhi on Wednesday and joined the saffron camp.

    Diamond Harbour legislator Dipak Haldar is likely to switch to BJP during a rally at Baruipur in South 24-Parganas on Thursday.

    Bhattacharya, who was elected on Congress ticket in 2016 and later had defected to the TMC, said, “When people like me quit their profession and join politics, they come with a vision. I joined politic to uplift the lot of the people of my constituency. My repeated pleas to the leadership to address the malpractices and corruption had always fallen on deaf years. Hence, the decision to join BJP.”

    Haldar, too, had been vocal about his discontent over the party leadership.

    ‘Goli Maaro’ chants mar adhikari rally

    In an ominous signal of the Bengal electoral battle being marred by violence, “goli maaro…” chants were raised at TMC and BJP rallies, though both parties distanced themselves from the slogan.

    At a rally led by Suvendu Adhikari in Chandannagar on Wednesday, the slogan “desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro…” (shoot the traitors) was allegedly raised by a few BJP cadre.

  • Media independence cannot be curtailed, newspapers going through era of degeneration: Mamata

    Banerjee sought to know if a democracy would be able to function the way it should, if newspapers are not allowed to write freely.

  • Whoever fights as BJP candidate from Nandigram, Mamata will be defeated: Suvendu

    Adhikari apologized to the people of the district for the movement against farmland acquisition in Singur, which forced Tata Motors to scrap the plan of an automobile hub.

  • Nadda writes to BJP workers on completion of his first year in office, slams Mamata

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP president J P Nadda on Wednesday lauded the party’s recent victory in a number of state and local body polls and set the target of “historic” wins in the next round of assembly elections, in an open letter to party workers to mark the completion of his first year in office.

    Nadda, who had taken over from Home Minister Amit Shah on January 20 last year, also praised the party’s welfare work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    In the letter, the BJP chief slammed the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal as “dictatorial” and alleged that over 300 saffron party workers have been killed in the poll-bound state in the last few years.

    He expressed confidence that ‘lotus’, the BJP’s poll symbol, will bloom there during the assembly elections, expected to be held in April-May.

    He exhorted the party workers to ensure a historic win for the BJP in the next round of assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and West Bengal and play an important role in continuing the nation’s “vikas yatra” (development journey) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    Under Modi’s leadership, the BJP has achieved victory in every election, he said, noting its impressive show in the Bihar assembly election and state bypolls in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Karnataka and Telangana.

    He also cited local body polls in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Ladakh and Hyderabad among others.

    The BJP also “exposed the disinformation campaign of the Congress and its allies” on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, farm reform laws and the border row with China, he said.

    Nadda said the BJP has set an unparalleled example with its welfare work for people during the pandemic while noting that the year was unprecedented in many ways.

    The time was full of pain and hardships for humankind, but BJP workers followed Modi’s call of “seva hi sangathan” (organisation is for service) and served people across the country.

    BJP workers provided food and ration to over 30 crore needy people, Nadda claimed, adding that India under Prime Minister Modi showed the way to the world in combating the pandemic.

    “As a leading political party our goal is to win elections and work tirelessly for the goodwill and betterment of common people; but how a political party can effectively work as a potent tool of social service and help people in times of need, the world has witnessed an unmatched example of this through your service and hard work during the Corona pandemic,” he wrote.

    The BJP had lost badly to the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi assembly polls last year, the first under Nadda, but has since then done well and continued with its expansion in regions where it had been traditionally weak.

    Referring to Bengal, he said, “When a person like me, who is the National President of India’s largest political party and who is always covered with security personnel, had to face a murderous assault during daylight while on a visit to West Bengal, it can be well imagined how difficult it would be for a common BJP worker to work under such tough and demanding circumstances.”

    His cavalcade was recently pelted with stones in the state, and the BJP had alleged complicity of the ruling party, a charge denied by the TMC.

    Nadda said the kind of success the BJP got in the District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir, emerging as the single largest party, was possible “only due to the supreme sacrifices of our party workers and also their hard work and perseverance”.

  • Mamata-Suvendu face-off communally divides Nandigram

    The scene of one of the bloodiest and most traumatic movements against land acquisition by a government for industrialisation, Nandigram of today stands polarised along communal lines.

  • Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee ratchets up rhetoric, likens BJP to snake in Junglemahal

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee appealed to the voters at a rally in an erstwhile Red stronghold in Bengal to “kick out” the BJP whom she claimed was more dangerous than the Maoists.

    The rally in Purulia was strategic given that the BJP had won all four Lok Sabha seats in Junglemahal, which is spread over Purulia, Bankura, Jhargam and West Midnapore districts, in 2019.

    “BJP is more dangerous than Maoists. It is like a venomous snake which will finish you off in a single bite and consume everything that comes its way,” Mamata said on Tuesday.

    The analogy is being seen as a political gambit given the people in Junglemahal had seen Maoist violence a decade ago. A TMC insider said Mamata sought to deliver the message of ensuring peace in the region.

    Accusing the BJP of misleading the people of Junglemahal, Mamata said the elected representatives were not seen in their constituencies.

    “Do they visit you? Do they work for you? Have they built roads? Have they brought water connections?… Before elections, they will be very sweet and after elections they won’t care. This is what the BJP is all about.

    They only lie,” she said. ‘’Kick them (the BJP) out if they come to seek your vote. If they offer money, accept and reject them.”

    Mamata’s Purulia rally came a day after she announced to contest from Nandigram, the epicentre of a farmers’ movement that propelled her to power a decade ago.

    By choosing Nandigram, Mamata took the fight to the BJP’s camp as her once trusted lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari comes from the region.

  • Mamata should contest from Nandigram alone: Suvendu Adhikari’s challenge to TMC chief

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday dared West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to contest the upcoming assembly polls only from Nandigram, the seat held by him before he switched over to the BJP.

    Adhikari, during a rally at Khejuri in Purba Midnapore, said it’s not fair on the part of the Trinamool Congress supremo to contest from two seats.

    Banerjee sprang a surprise on Monday when she declared that she will contest the assembly elections from Nandigram.

    “If possible, I will contest from both Bhawanipore and Nandigram. Nandigram is my elder sister and Bhawanipore is my younger sister. I will give a strong candidate from Bhawanipore also, in case I don’t fight from that seat,” she had said.

    Adhikari said the TMC is like a private limited company run by two people, referring to Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek.

    “Didi, you have to contest from only one seat, Nandigram. You cannot fight from two seats, that is not going to happen,” he asserted.

    Nandigram was the scene of massive public protest against “forcible” land acquisition by the erstwhile Left Front government for the creation of a special economic zone.

    During another public meeting on Monday, Adhikari had said he will defeat Banerjee her by a margin of “at least 50,000 votes” if fielded from Nandigram.

    Adhikari also alleged that many BJP workers were attacked by the TMC earlier in the day.

    “There have been attacks at five places. The police was busy ensuring a smooth passage for the CM’s convoy for her rally at Purulia in the afternoon,” he claimed.

    The political heavyweight from Bengal also said while Banerjee specialises in telling lies, her nephew is an “extortionist”.

    “Her (Mamata’s) days are numbered as the chief minister. She should be ready with a letterhead that reads former CM,” Adhikari said.

  • ‘BJP more dangerous than Maoists’: Mamata Banerjee in Purulia

    By PTI
    PURULIA: Terming the BJP as more dangerous than the Maoists, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the saffron party of making false promises to the people before elections.

    The TMC supremo, whose party is witnessing an exodus ahead of the assembly elections due in April-May, asserted that politics is a solemn ideology and philosophy and one cannot daily change ideologies like clothes.

    “The BJP is more dangerous than the Maoists,” Banerjee said while addressing a rally in Purulia district, which was once a hotbed of Left-wing extremism.

    “Those who want to join the BJP can leave but we will never bow our heads to the saffron party,” she said.

    Several TMC leaders have left the ruling party in the state to join the BJP.

    She claimed that the BJP leaders misled the Adivasi people of the Jangalmahal area, within which Purulia is situated, with false promises and did not visit them after winning the Lok Sabha elections.

    BJP candidates won all the seats in the Jangalmahal area including Purulia in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.