Farmers Movement Archive

TMC alone can take on BJP, not Congress, says Abhishek Banerjee at campaign meet

Only Mamata Banerjee can combat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and oust the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Saba polls, Trinamool Congress (TMC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee told voters at Jangipur in Bengal’s Murshidabad district on Thursday. Targeting the Congress, which still has a base in the district where its state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury represents the Berhampore Lok Sabha seat, Banerjee said, “Both Congress and TMC are confronting the BJP but only our party has proved that it can defeat the BJP. The Congress has failed to do so.” “The BJP is selling national assets like the Railways, the airports. Have you seen the Congress protesting anywhere? The two parties have a secret understanding. Jangipur residents have also told me that they see no difference between the local BJP and Congress,” said Banerjee. “In 2024, the TMC will oust the BJP from Delhi. The entire nation wants Mamata Banerjee. Congress talks big. This is the district that presented to India President Pranab Mukherjee. His son Abhijit Mukherjee joined the TMC in July. The Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist) have been reduced to zero in Bengal in the recent polls. They forged an alliance in 2016 and this year as well. This only helped the BJP,” said Banerjee. “Reality across the nation is that Congress is losing all elections to the BJP. The TMC, on the other hand, is winning,” said the chief minister’s nephew. “I promise that we will win the next assembly polls in Tripura. Our organisation is being formed. The Tripura government is so scared that it has issued prohibitory orders to stop rallies. The BJP tried to conquer Bengal using money power and central probe agencies against us. It thought that we can be silenced too like the Congress. I have been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate several times. We are not scared. We will make you (BJP) run from Delhi,” said Banerjee. “TMC will go to all states that the BJP is ruling. We will oust the BJP from these states. The more you provoke us the more powerful we become,” he added. Assembly polls in the district’s Jangipur and Samsergunj seats could not be held in March-April as the TMC candidates died of Covid-19. The elections will be held on September 30 along with the Bhawanipore bypoll in Kolkata from where the chief minister is contesting. Addressing a campaign meeting in the Chakraberia area of Bhawanipore, the chief minister on Thursday said, “Probably it was my destiny that I would look at Delhi from Bhawanipore. The BJP has enforced many anti-people laws. The farm laws are among these and must be withdrawn immediately.” Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury reacting to Abhishek Banerjee’s statement on Thursday evening said, “At a time when Sonia Gandhi has called for the unity of all Opposition parties against the BJP, the chief minister and her nephew are making all efforts to sabotage this unity. The TMC is doing this because it has received favours from Narendra Modi.”

Hindustan Times

23-09-2021

India