Mamata lashes out at Ram-Baam’, asserts has no truck with BJP

Kolkata, Jan 2 (PTI) West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC Supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday lashed out at both her opponents in the state – BJP and the CPI(M) led Left Front – claiming the ideological opposites, ‘Ram-Baam’ (BJP-Left), had allied covertly.

Despite having been the Railway Minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led coalition government, she also asserted that she had never directly associated with the BJP.

Launching her party’s new outreach programme titled Didir Suraksha Kavach (Didi’s Protective Shield)’, Banerjee said, “Even if one weed attacks our paddy, the whole crop could be ruined”, while cautioning her workers to root out corruption ahead of Panchayat polls to be held in the next few months.

Around 3.5 lakh Trinamool Congress workers will reach out to the around 10 crore people of the state to check if they are benefitted from government projects, she said.

Banerjee said a proper vigilance system at the party level will be put in place to “weed out rotten elements”. Her party functionaries have been facing a series of corruption charges and two prominent leaders have been arrested in the year gone by.

Claiming that the BJP differentiates between people on religious lines, the TMC supremo claimed that she was never directly associated with the BJP.

Despite her assertion, she was the railway minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet before walking out of the NDA on the Tehelka scam issue aligning with the Congress for the state assembly elections in 2001, only to return to the NDA in 2002.

The TMC was part of the BJP-led NDA till the 2006 West Bengal assembly polls in the state.

Banerjee also asked the party’s cadres to reach out to the people to counter “canards” spread against the TMC by opposition parties.

In an apparent reference to an alleged tacit understanding between the opposition BJP and the Left in the state, she said, “Now, Ram and Bam (BJP and Left) have become one.”

A similar charge had been levelled by the TMC after the 2019 Lok Sabha election, when the party alleged that many Left supporters had secretly voted for BJP in a move which it claimed had the blessings of the Left leadership.

“We are followers of an inclusive ideology. We need to take along everyone. The BJP’s ideology differentiates between people on religious lines.

“You have to listen to people with humility,” Banerjee told TMC workers at the party programme held at ‘Nazrul Mancha’, named after the famous revolutionary poet of the pre-independence era Kazi Nazrul Islam.

The Didir Suraksha Kavach’ programme will see her workers fan out to villages to find out whether the government’s programmes were benefitting common people.

“Around 3.5 lakh party workers will reach out to around 10 crore people of the state. It is being done so that no one is left out. The Duare Sarkar’ campaign of the state government will continue,” she said.

The TMC boss, however, asserted that the campaign was not planned with an eye on the panchayat election.

The campaign was launched by the chief minister in the presence of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and state president Subrata Bakshi.

“The party will start the campaign on January 11 and will continue with it for 60 days. Our party workers will reach out to people across the state and ensure that everyone can avail of welfare schemes of the state government,” Abhishek Banerjee said while addressing a press conference.

Just like Duare Sarkar’ (government at doorstep), an outreach programme of the state government, the objective of the new campaign will be to connect with people through the party’s programme, the CM said.

Mamata Banerjee, while speaking on TMC’s vision as it completed 25 years on January 1, said the party aims at a “united India with a strengthened federal structure”.

“This is just another attempt to fool the people ahead of the panchayat polls. But it won’t yield any result,” Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP said.

State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury claimed that it is “another bluff” by the ruling TMC.

Senior CPI (M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said, “Even a child would laugh at the claim of the chief minister that TMC pursued constructive politics. The memories of TMC destroying furniture of the state assembly in 2006 are still fresh in our memories,” he said.