Lauding Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee for her party's landslide victory in the Assembly elections, the West Bengal Pradesh Congress leadership said here on Saturday that it would extend “unconditional and complete” support to the new Trinamool Congress-led government for restoration of peace and bringing about holistic development of the State.
The WBPCC leadership said the question of the Congress joining the government would be decided after detailed discussions with the party's high command. The Congress has won 42 seats in the election.
“Ms. Banerjee had not put forth any condition before supporting the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre. Similarly, we too will not impose any condition for extending support to her party in the legislative assembly. She will become the Chief Minister and we will fully cooperate with her in all her decisions for the progress of the State,” WBPCC president Manas Bhunia told a press conference.
Describing the rout of the Left Front in the elections as “the second freedom movement,” Mr. Bhunia said that people had given the Congress-Trinamool Congress “an absolute mandate to chart out a new path in a State where democracy has been battered and bruised, violence has claimed thousands of lives and the exchequer has been left bankrupt during the Left Front's rule.”
Appreciating the role played by the Election Commission to ensure free and fair elections, he claimed that the Left Front government would have been ousted long back had previous elections been held in a similar fashion.
Asked about the crushing defeat suffered by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in his own Assembly constituency of Jadavpur, Mr. Bhunia said: “We had cautioned him numerous times in the Assembly and elsewhere to rectify his government's mistakes. He was a careless emperor whose fall was imminent like the fall of the Roman emperors.”
Expressing satisfaction with the Congress' performance in the elections, he pointed out that the party could have won six to seven more seats but for factors like prejudiced administration, weak organisational strength and presence of dissidents.
Mr. Bhunia criticised the role played by renowned author and IAS officer Upamanyu Chatterjee who was deployed as an observer in the sixth phase elections.
“He maybe a great author but he did not execute his responsibility properly. When we tried to contact him over phone for complaining about rigging by the CPI(M) activists at several booths in the Garbeta constituency, he did not attend our calls for two long hours and we were forced to call up Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram for help,” he said.
