Pointing out that any division in the anti-Left vote would pave the way for the victory for the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had so far in her campaign in north Bengal appeared to have given the Congress the cold shoulder, appealed to a congregation at Kumargram in Jalpaiguri district on Tuesday not to ruin the prospects of the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance in the Assembly polls.
The Congress may be the smaller partner in the alliance but it has more of a presence than the Trinamool in north Bengal, unlike in the rest of the State.
Admitting that the Trinamool was yet to make any substantive mark in Assembly elections in north Bengal, Ms. Banerjee sought the support of the people “to show you how much we can do for the region in return.”
Ms. Banerjee was speaking on the third day of a whirlwind tour of north Bengal, crammed with election rallies.
Questions have been raised about the absence of Congress leaders at her meetings even though she earlier said candidates of both parties would be seen together at election rallies.
“If there can be a change in seasons, why not in government,” Ms. Banerjee asked even as she appealed to the gathering to “bury the CPI(M) politically so that it can never again rise to commit atrocities on the people.” “It is a question of honour,” she added.
The coming contest “will not be just an election. It will be a utsav [festival]…a utsav of democracy which will create history for the entire world to see,” said Ms. Banerjee, who attacked the ruling Left Front and asked whether the people “have not seen enough of the CPI(M) over the past 35 years.”
Accusing the Left Front of “creating divisions” within the multiethnic polity in the Dooars region, she appealed to the local population, from Adivasis to Rajbanghsis, the Gorkha-speaking to the minorities, to support the Trinamool. “Ours is a democratic family…we are together.”
In a show of solidarity with the Adivasis who form a sizable section of the local population, she said: “When blood was spilling in Jangal Mahal [forest areas in the southwest of the State which witnessed to Maoist activity in recent times] I had the courage to go there when no one else went.”
Rail projects
Asserting that she had sanctioned a series of rail projects for the region and improved connectivity, Ms. Banerjee asked: “Why cannot north Bengal be a Switzerland?”
“This has drawn sneers from the CPI(M) but what they could not do in 35 years of rule we will.”
