Mindset positive waiting for INDIA meeting: TMC’s Abhishek

PTI, Jun 5, 2024, 5:13 PM IST

Kolkata: On the way to attend the crucial INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi, TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday said he is looking forward to it with a positive mindset.

The Diamond Harbour MP said TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee got the invite from INDIA bloc leaders to attend the meeting.

“Let us meet first. Once I come to know I will certainly share with you (media) the details. I am looking forward to the meeting with a positive mindset,” he told reporters here.

INDIA bloc leaders will meet at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Wednesday evening to decide on the strategy to form the government.

“The verdict of people proved the NDA is on shaky turf” while the INDIA partners are united, he observed.

Abhishek Banerjee said that till a month ago, BJP leaders were flying to West Bengal and asking the people to give the party 30 Lok Sabha seats and it would make the the TMC government fall.

“Now see the irony. I would rather ask BJP leaders to make more such predictions. They had asserted that BJP would get 30 seats and we got this (29),” he said.

In the 2021 assembly polls, the same BJP leaders had predicted they would get 200 seats and the TMC won 215 seats, he said.

“This shows they don’t have the connection with the people of Bengal,” Banerjee said.

On the proposed swearing-in of PM Narendra Modi on June 8, he said “first you should ask BJP what happened to their slogan “Ab ki baar 400 Paar”.

The TMC leader claimed that the saffron party leaders peddled a narrative that they brought Lord Ram inside the Ayodhya temple, “but people realised that they were taking Lord Ram’s name to get votes”.

“No wonder Ayodhya defeated BJP,” he added.

He also alleged that the BJP sought to create an atmosphere of fear by using central agencies, which was spurned by the electorate when they got the chance to vote against it.

“It (the poll results) is a culmination of everything. What has the government done? You have seen the BJP’s rallies for the last three months. They could not produce their report cards of the development work. That is why the BJP resorted to divisive and communal politics. So I salute everyone who uprooted this communal forces,” he added.

Banerjee said people of the country voted against the price hike during the Modi regime and its “scant disregard” to address the real issues faced by the citizens.