Even as she assured her party workers that she would not leave West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday that her target was to make “All India Trinamool Congress an all-India party.”
“We will restore to the State its dignity in Delhi… It is my challenge,” she said, addressing a convention of various youth outfits of the party at Durgapur in Bardhaman district.
“Do not worry, I will never leave Bengal, it is my motherland and I will work for Bengal till my last breath,” she said, trying to put to rest the speculation, gaining currency in an election year, about her prime ministerial ambitions.
The Opposition in the State have charged that she was neglecting her duties as the Chief Minister.
Reiterating that her party’s fight was against the “joint forces” of the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Ms. Banerjee said party workers have a greater responsibility to take the fight at the national level.
“Unlike the Congress and the BJP, we do not get crores to spend on the election campaign,” she said.
The Trinamoool Congress chairperson said her party would contest the Lok Sabha seats in a number of States, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Tripura.
Ms. Banerjee is scheduled to start her campaign in other States by addressing on February 25, a public rally at Agartala in Tripura where the CPI(M) is in power. She urged her party workers to abide by the designated leadership at each level of the party, and cautioned them against complacency and indiscipline.
