Will not leave an inch to any opposition: Mamata

“BJP, Congress and CPI(M) are playing got-up matches. But we are not into any such game,” Mamata Banerjee said at an election rally in in Jangipur. File Photo

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asserted that her party would not leave an inch to any opposition candidate in any seat, including Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency where President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit is the Congress candidate.

“BJP, Congress and CPI(M) are playing got-up matches. But we are not into any such game,” she said at an election rally in Jangipur in support of party candidate Haji Nurul Islam.

Without once naming the President or his son, Ms. Banerjee said, “I have not brought Haji Nurul, Indranil (Sen) or Mohammed Ali to play got-up matches here.”

Mr. Sen, a new entrant, is pitted against Congress heavyweight and Union Minister Adhir Chowdhury for the Baharampur seat, while Mohammad Ali is the TMC candidate in Murshidabad.

TMC and Congress had fought the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in an alliance and all these three seats were won by Congress. While Pranab Mukherjee had won the Jangipur seat in 2009, it was won by his son Abhijit in a 2012 bypoll when his father became the President of India.

Mr. Nurul is a sitting MP from Basirhat Lok Sabha seat from where he hails, but was shifted this time by TMC to Jangipur leading to murmurs in certain sections.

Ms. Banerjee, however, asserted on Sunday that Mr. Nurul was “more than my own brother” while asking people to vote for him. “Congress, CPI(M) and BJP play games to cut votes in various constituencies in order to ensure victory of their candidates as per their strength there. But this will not happen this time,” she said.

Claiming that Congress “only makes false promises”, she asserted that “Congress will get a big zero.”

“The Centre is taking away one lakh crore rupees from the state. Had this not happened, we could have ensured 20 lakh jobs for the youth of the state,” she claimed.