Trinamool Congress chairperson and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched a frontal attack on the Congress, rebutting the points raised by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at a meeting at Nagarkatta in Jalpaiguri district.
While the Congress leader was there in the morning, Ms. Banerjee was addressing a meeting of TMC supporters at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district later in the afternoon.
Divisive politics
She urged the supporters not to cast a single vote in favour of either the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate or the Congress candidate from Darjeeling as the former was practising divisive politics and the latter had betrayed the State’s people by taking away over Rs. 76,000 crore for debt servicing.
She said that many a time she had lost her night’s sleep thinking about the State’s financial distress. “But, I cannot be stopped this manner. I am like a tornado and Trinamool Congress is going to Delhi. Then all of you will have to come to us,” she said in an oblique reference to post-poll alliances.
She came down heavily on the leaders of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), saying that they had got Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, but had failed to utilise the vehicle or the funds allocated to it by the State government for the area’s uplift.
“If they had come to Kolkata the number of times they ran to Delhi, their purpose might have been served better.”
She was referring to the frequent visits made to New Delhi by the GJM leaders with whom her distance has grown since fielding Bhaichung Bhutia as the TMC candidate from Darjeeling.
The GJM has extended support to BJP candidate S S Ahluwalia in the hopes of the party supporting its Gorkhaland demand if it comes to power. She also criticised the efforts (made by the GJM) that the TMC candidate was from Sikkim. “Is that not part of India? Has he not made the State his home?” she asked.
Refuting Mr Gandhi’s statements at Nagarkata that funds disbursed by the Centre do not seem to have reached the people, Ms. Banerjee said that she would challenge him to prove his statements.
Seasonal birds
Without naming Mr. Gandhi, she said unlike her these were seasonal birds, which were to be seen during election times.
On his criticism of road conditions, she reminded all that these are national highways whose maintenance rests with the Centre.
