LS polls | Voting for Left-Congress in Bengal would mean voting for BJP: Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused her party’s INDIA bloc partners CPI(M) and Congress of “joining hands with the BJP” in the state where the alliance has “ceased to exist”.

Speaking in Krishnanagar on Sunday (March 31), the Trinamool Congress supremo urged people not to cast their votes in favour of the Left-Congress-ISF alliance in West Bengal as “voting for them would mean voting for the BJP”.

What Mamata said

“There is no INDIA alliance in West Bengal. I had played a key role in the formation of the Opposition bloc. Even its name was given by me. But the CPI(M) and Congress are working for the BJP in the state,” she said.

“Don’t cast your votes in favour of Congress, the CPI(M), and their ally, a minority party (Indian Secular Front) in the state if you want to defeat the BJP,” she said.

Banerjee claimed that although TMC leaders are being “hounded by the CBI and ED”, not a single CPI(M) or Congress leader in West Bengal has been arrested by these agencies.

TMC to go it alone

In January, Banerjee had announced that her party would contest the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal alone, rebuffing efforts by the Congress leadership to negotiate a seat-sharing agreement.

The party is contesting all the 42 Lok Sabha seats of the state.

The TMC, however, is part of the Opposition INDIA bloc at the national level. The party’s decision to go it alone in West Bengal has set the stage for a three-cornered electoral battle.

Left reacts

Reacting sharply to Banerjee’s remarks, CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty accused the TMC of having a “covert understanding” with the saffron camp.

“Many top Opposition leaders, such as Hemant Soren and Arvind Kejriwal, have been arrested. But no one has touched the TMC top leadership despite many allegations of corruption. Second, INDIA bloc is not TMC’s personal property; it cannot decide whether the alliance exists or not,” he said.

(With agency inputs)