Kolkata : At a time when the BJP has made strong inroads in Bengal by securing 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday expressed her desire to resign from the post and continue to strengthen the party and fight against the evils of corruption and communalism.
This is the first time Banerjee is meeting the press after the poll results were declared last week.
After convening a meeting with her party MLAs and MPs at her residence in Kalighat, she said: “I have offered to resign from the post of chief minister, but my party leaders requested me not to do so. From now on, I shall continue to focus more on strengthening my party.”
Banerjee said she has always worked for the people of her state, and now she needs to re-organise her party and will provide more time for strengthening it.
In fact, Banerjee rejigged the party on Saturday and alleged that there some foreign countries also who had played a big role in the victory of BJP.
According to Banerjee, “When I invited Imran Khan for a cricket match in Kolkata, I was dubbed pro-Pakistani. Now , however, BJP themselves have called Imran on the swearing-in ceremony. So, is this not pro-Pakistani? Although I respect every country, so far I have noticed that the BJP has always followed double standards . They follow different policies for a country before and after the election.”
Banerjee also said , “I am not afraid to raise my voice .Rajiv Gandhi got 400 seats. Could he run the Parliament? Such arrogance is not good.”
“Opposition leaders were called Pakistanis when they raised questions. Now, why is the Pakistan PM invited ? Isn’t it anti-national?” Didi asked.
Her comments came following Rahul Gandhi’s media briefing, where even he offered to resign as the Congress president. That, however , was rejected by the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Saying that she respected people’s mandate, Banerjee said: ”BJP has succeeded in their formula of polarisation. They have succeeded in creating a divide .I am a Hindu and I am not going to accept BJP’s strategy of winning the election through money power and spreading the venom of communalism. Democracy cannot continue for a long with the help of money power.”
Calling Election Commission as the “man of the match”, Didi said: “An orchestrated well planned Hindu –Muslim divide has been created with the help of money power and despite complaining to Election Commission (EC) , it had failed to take any action. The BJP has mobilised all CRPF, BSF, CISF officials who helped them to distribute money to voters. I have already received various complaints to this regard.”
When reporters asked Banerjee about whether BJP’s rise in Bengal will affect her vote share in the Assembly election, she said, “People will decide who will be the government. I have given little time to the party and now I will devote myself to the works for the party.”
About the recent post-poll violence that led to the death of a man at Falta on Saturday, Banerjee said, ” Everything is under the control of the Election Commission. We have to see as I have not received police reports. Now, the police will directly send report to the EC.”
For the past five months as Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is in force, Banerjee said, “I couldn’t work for the last five months. I can challenge that the amount of development work carried out in the last eight years under my regime has never been undertaken by any government before. This factor, however, did not play any role in this election.”
When asked whether she will take steps against the corrupt leaders in the TMC, she said, “If I take steps, they will join other parties. This is a trend that has been going on in every political party. This is dangerous. “
On Saturday, Subranghsu Roy suspended Trinamool Congress MLA and son of Mukul Roy, a BJP leader, also joined the BJP. Around 200 party workers from several districts also joined BJP after BJP masive victory in the state.