West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said she would not “tolerate” attacks on “supporters” of the Communist Party of India-Marxist [CPI(M)] and the pulling down of a statue of Russian leader Vladimir Lenin in Tripura.
“Karl Marx or Mohamati [The Great] Lenin are not my leaders. But they do matter in Russia. Different people are leaders in different countries and different places formed this [the world]…but you [BJP]do not have the right to raze the statues of Marx or Lenin, just because you came to power.”
“In fact you [BJP] have no right to demolish statues of Gandhiji, Marx, Lenin, Swami Vivekananda or Netaji [Subhas Chandra Bose],” Ms Banerjee said in a public rally in Bankura district.
Condemning alleged attacks on CPI(M) activists in Tripura, she said “no person can be targeted for being affiliated to any particular party.”
“They [BJP] have created an environment of mayhem [in Tripura]. They are demolishing everything. I do not care if others are protesting or not but I will. I have ideological battles with the CPI(M) and it will remain. And, I have resisted attacks by the CPI(M) and now I will resist attacks by the BJP too,” she said.
She stated TMC activists have not “targeted CPI(M)” in the State; an observation which is always contested by the CPI(M) leadership in the State.
Challenging the BJP’s statement that their “next stop is Bengal,” she said that if “BJP targets Bengal, Bengal will target Lal Qila [Red Fort].”
Regional coalition
“But we are not keen to grab power but we will ensure that other [non-BJP] parties get it,” she said indicating her latest move to form a regional coalition.
