West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee speaking at a rally in Kolkata on Thursday, July 21. (Photo: FB/AITC)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today urged the people to turn 2024 into a "rejection election". "Break the shackles of the BJP and its monumental incompetence. Install a pro-people government," she told the crowd in Kolkata, at a Martyrs' Day rally by her party Trinamool Congress.
She claimed the BJP will not get majority in the Lok Sabha in 2024. "Sometimes the BJP plays the Hindu card, Muslim card, and sometimes the tribal card. But they will not give tribals their rights,” she further said, referring to the BJP-led NDA fielding Droupadi Murmu as Presidential candidate.
Ms Banerjee punctuated her speech with some drama on stage. At one point, she held up some muri (puffed rice) – a traditional snack -- to make a point against the recent levying of Goods and Services Tax on essentials that weren't in the GST net earlier. A large cutout of a gas cylinder made an appearance, too. “The BJP has lost its mind," she said.
Then she asked the crowd to pass her some muri, got a bit out of a bag, and called a jhal muri vendor on stage, saying she would certainly pay him. Holding up a tray of puffed rice, she said, “See, they have put GST on muri. Even on mishti (sweets), lassi (buttermilk) and curd... If a patient gets admitted to hospital, they'll charge GST now."
Ms Banerjee was speaking at the party's otherwise annual event that couldn't be held the last two years due to the Covid pandemic. It's more significant now, being the first after the party came to power for a third consecutive term last year.
"Fuel prices have also gone up,” she said, this time getting an LPG cylinder on stage. She slammed the Centre over privatisation of banks and accused the BJP of using the Agnipath defence recruitment scheme "to train its own cadres".
Referring to the BJP's return to power in Maharashtra after Uddhay Thackeray's government fell to a coup, she said, “They think, now that they've broken Mumbai, they will break Chhattisgarh and then Bengal. I warn them. Don't come here. There is a huge Royal Bengal Tiger here.”
She accused the central government of holding up funds to the state. “Listen, BJP. If you don't give us our due, we will land up in Delhi… Don't try to scare us with ED, CBI (central probe agencies). We are not cowards. We will fight and win.”
After the event at Esplanade in Kolkata, she was scheduled to be at a meeting of party leaders to decide on whom to support in the Vice-Presidential elections. It did back -- in fact TMC was among the first movers -- Opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha in the Presidential elections. In the Vice-Presidential contest, while the Opposition candidate is Congress veteran Margaret Alva, the NDA's is Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had a fractious equation with the TMC government as West Bengal Governor until recently.
As for the rally, July 21 is marked as Shahid Diwas or "martyrs' day" to commemorate the day in 1993 when, during the Left government, 13 people were killed as the Kolkata Police fired at a Youth Congress protest led by Mamata Banerjee. She was the chief of the West Bengal Youth Congress at the time. While she left the Congress later in the 1990s, she and her party continue to claim the legacy.
TMC workers from across the state gathered in Kolkata, where the preparations were supervised by the top leadership, including Ms Banerjee's nephew and TMC General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Police deployed thousands of extra personnel to manage the crowd and traffic.