Mamata Banerjee: Congress can go its own way, regional parties must unite

Kolkata, February 14

Having reached out to regional satraps MK Stalin and K Chandrasekhar Rao to push for an anti-BJP alliance a day before, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday sought to edge the Congress out of any such prospective formation, saying no regional outfit shared cordial ties with it and that the “Congress can go its own way”.

Amid signs of increasing bonhomie between her and her Telangana and Tamil Nadu counterparts Rao and Stalin, Banerjee had approached the two on Sunday to set up meetings of Opposition CMs. “The country’s federal structure has been bulldozed...the country’s Constitution is being demolished. We all need to come together to protect it,” she said on Monday after her party swept the municipal corporation elections in West Bengal, dealing yet another body blow to the BJP after the latter’s humiliation in the Assembly elections in 2021.

“Together, we are trying to protect the federal structure. All regional parties must come to an understanding,” she said, referring to her telephone calls to Rao and Stalin.

Banerjee, who has intensified her efforts to form a coalition of opposition parties after she fell out with the Congress over cobbling together an alliance in Goa, claimed no regional outfit wa on friendly terms with the main Opposition party. “The Congress can go its way, we will go ours,” she asserted.

Interestingly, Congress is an alliance partner of the DMK in Tamil Nadu. — PTI

Need to protect federal structure

The Constitution is being demolished. We all need to come together to protect it. — Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal CM

#federal structure #mamata banerjee