Breaking her silence over the possibility of a tie-up with the Congress for the all crucial Assembly elections in West Bengal, Trinamul Congress Mamata Banerjee on Sunday urged the Congress to build a mahajot (grand alliance) to oust the Left Front from the seat of power. “I am in favour of the alliance. A mahajot needs to be build in the interest of the people. Hence I call upon the Congress for an alliance with us for the Assembly polls,” she said while addressing a mammoth party rally at Mayo Road near the Gandhi statue to demand justice for the mass murders allegedly perpetrated by the CPI(M).
Kickstarting her poll campaign in the rally which seemed to be reply to the Left Front’s Brigade rally on February 13, the Trinamul Congress chief said: “Let there be an alliance between the Congress and Trinamul Congress. We want to continue with our alliance with the Congress and the SUCI.” With this, the railway minister put all the speculations over her party’s alliance with the Congress for the Assembly polls to rest.
On being contacted by this newspaper in the evening, senior Congress leader and Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee quipped, “We have been running the Cabinet ministry at the Centre in alliance with the Trinamul Congress. Our alliance is intact in the state too.”
Significantly, the Trinamul Congress chief also kept the door ajar for the Left-minded people to a part of the mahajot underlining the need for an all-round unity to defeat the Left Front. She said: “I oppose the Left Front but I am not against the Left ideology. So I am making an appeal to the Left-minded people to join our alliance. In Egypt, people have brought in change after 30 years. I urge the people of my state to get rid of the Left, democratically after 35 years of misrule.”
In a bid to retain the minority vote banks, Ms Banerjee also vowed to implement the recommendations of the Sachar Committee after bringing “winds of change” in the state. “We will make the Sachar Committee recommendations a reality for the upliftment of the minorities in the state,” she mentioned.
Projecting herself as an able administrator, the firebrand leader promised of bringing in an “administrative reform” including the police. She said, “We will let the police do its job and take care of the family of the police personnel.”
Highlighting the roadmap of her government, Ms Banerjee assured a balanced growth in agriculture and industry. “If the Trinamul Congress gets a time of 35 years, it will produce gold in every inch.”
She claimed that the CPI(M) never let the justice prevail in the massacre it had orchestrated during its regime. “After coming to power, we will open up all those cases and deliver justice,” she assured. She also demanded a probe into the “black money stashed by the politicians of Bengal, especially the ruling party leaders, in foreign banks.”
Questioning the industrial drive initiated by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, she asked: “Four companies talked of investing in Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore. Where is the Jindal now?”
Meanwhile, she distributed a compensation of `1 lakh to each family of the slain in Netai carnage.