Former BJP MP Mitra, 4 Cong MLAs join TMC

Shubhadeep Choudhury 

Tribune News Service 

Kolkata, July 21 

Blowing the election bugle, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday called upon people to gear up to defeat the BJP in the next General Election. She tore into the saffron party even as former Rajya Sabha Member of the BJP Chandan Mitra and four Congress MLAs in the state Assembly joined the ruling TMC.

The Congress MLAs who joined the TMC are Samar Mukherjee, Abu Taher, Sabina Yasmin and Akhruzzman. Mitra had resigned from the BJP a few days ago. All of them joined the TMC at its annual Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata.

The BJP is already on a losing curve, Banerjee said, citing that the party’s old ally ‘Shiv Sena’ had abstained during the “no confidence” vote on Friday. The BJD and TRS too abstained from voting, she said, addressing the mammoth rally.

Banerjee said the BJP could sail through the “no confidence” vote because of the support it received from AIADMK. She said had Jayalalithaa been alive, AIADMK MPs would not have backed the BJP and the government would have faced defeat.

The West Bengal CM, however, claimed that tie-up with the AIADMK would not benefit the BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha polls which the Stalin-led DMK would win handsomely in Tamil Nadu.

She said similarly in Uttar Pradesh, the SP-BSP combine would drastically reduce the number of seats won by the BJP in 2014. Lalu Prasad, Naveen Patnaik and Amarinder Singh will cut into BJP’s seats in their respective states, Banerjee said.

The BJP might not even get five seats in Rajasthan; in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh also, it would do poorly, Banerjee said. “The BJP will get 100 seats or may be 150 at best in next year’s Lok Sabha elections,” she claimed. 

The WB Chief Minister, who has been playing a key role in cobbling up the “Federal Front” consisting of various parties to challenge the BJP, reminded the crowd about her plan of holding a massive rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata in coming January where members of the proposed coalition would address the crowd. She said she wanted Bengal to play a central role in the electoral fight against the BJP and added that “Bengal must show the way”.