Mamata joins forces with TN, Telangana CMs to protect India's federal structure

Even as a few states have opposed the “threat’ posed to the autonomy of states by the BJP-ruled Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, told reporters on Monday (February 14) that she had a dialogue with the CMs of Tamil Nadu and Telangana, and together they were trying to “protect the country’s federal structure from getting bulldozed”.

The TMC supremo, who had visited Uttar Pradesh last week to campaign for Samajwadi Party (SP), called the UP CM a bhogi (worldly person), not a yogi (monk). Further, she said that the TMC had decided against contesting elections in UP in the “larger interest” of the nation.

“The TMC did not field any candidate in UP as I did not want Akhilesh Yadav (SP chief) to get weak in any seat. In the first phase, I am hoping Akhilesh’s party will win 37 of the 57 seats,” she told a news channel.

Hitting out at Adityanath, Banerjee claimed, “Women are burnt alive and peasants get murdered in that state. The CM there is not a yogi but a bhogi. If India has to be saved, UP will have to be saved first.”

Banerjee would be visiting UP again on March 3 to hold a rally in Varanasi. The feisty TMC boss also lashed out at the Congress stating that no regional outfit shared cordial relations with the grand old party.

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According to Banerjee, it’s the duty of those who claim themselves to be secular to bring everyone on one platform. “I had asked the Congress and the CPI(M) to join hands… If they do not listen, there is nothing that I can do. The Congress can go its way, we will go ours,” she pointed out.

Banerjee stressed that it was time to free the country from “seeds of hatred and atrocities”.
She said that India was “veering towards a presidential form of government, with its Constitution getting demolished”.

“I have spoken with Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin and Telangana’s K Chandrasekhar Rao, and we are trying to protect the country’s federal structure,” the TMC chief revealed.

The Bengal CM insisted her party would also do well in Goa elections. “Every household in Goa is now aware of the TMC. We will perform well there. This is just the beginning,” she said.

Referring to TMC’s triumph in Bengal’s four municipal corporations, where elections were held on February 12, Banerjee thanked people for casting their votes in favour of her party.