CM warns party workers against complacency before elections

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday warned the councillors of Kolkata Municipal Corporation that they would be held responsible if party candidates fare badly in the Assembly polls from their areas.

She met leaders of the Kolkata District Committee at her Kalighat residence on Saturday. Mukul Roy, Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Sudip Bandhyopadhay, Sovan Chatterjee were also present in the meeting.

Banerjee said that Monirul Islam would have to tender unconditional apology for his comment against the judges and judicial system. 

“What Monirul had said on Friday (Friday) is not the view of the party. The party holds the judges in high esteem and keeps full faith in the judicial system,” she said.

Monirul Islam on Friday in a meeting said that the erstwhile left Front government had given land worth crores of rupees to the judges at a throwaway price and that was the reason why the judges were giving judgements against the State government. 

The statement raised a volley of criticism from the Opposition and had embarrassed Trinamool Congress leadership.

The Trinamool Congress chief reiterated that the proposed alliance between CPI(M) and Congress would not have any impact on the poll prospect of the party. “People of the state have seen what development has taken place in the past 4 years. 

What the state government did during this period is phenomenal and such work had not been carried out during the Left front regime of 34 years. Be it Sabuj Sathi or construction of rural roads by the panchayat department or abolishing open defecation in the district, the State government’s success has become quite visible,” she said.

She said that no party worker should be complacent and should take the election with utmost sincerity. They should go to people and make them aware of the projects taken up by the state government. 

Sabuj Sathi project has benefitted the students immensely and local leaders should go to the rural populace and show them how lives of school going boys and girls have changed after getting bicycles. 

“We are all gathered here for work. We have no other business but to ensure that the development of West Bengal takes place without interruption. We all should work to achieve the goal,” she maintained.

Banerjee on Saturday pulled up Mala Saha, Sashi Panja and Sadhan Pandey and asked them to concentrate in their constituencies and address local issues. 

“Mala you should go out and address the issue of infighting that is taking place in your area. You should not do politics from home and instead go out and see what is happening around. To Panja and Pandey her advice was to go to the area and address local issues.

She lauded Mayor Sovan Chatterjee for carrying out various projects to beautify the city and hinted that Chatterjee would be a candidate this time too. She also hinted that Paresh Pal would also be a candidate. 

Her final message to the party leaders is be sincere and work seriously to ensure that all the 17 candidates from Kolkata and its neighbourhood wins the poll handsomely.