‘CM’s Bihar visit a protest against authoritarian Centre’

Stating that the party would fight to “strengthen the federal structure” in the country, TMC said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s attendance at the oath-taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar was a mark of “protest against authoritarian attitude of the Centre”.

“Our Chief Minister is going there (Bihar) to fight against intolerance and mark her protest against the authoritarian attitude of the Centre. The Trinamool Congress will fight in favour of strengthening the federal structure and secular fabric of our country,” said party leader and state urban development minister Firhad Hakim.

Kumar, the JD(U) leader and the Bihar Chief Minister designate, and Banerjee had spoken over the phone after the Bihar Assembly elections results were announced with the former thanking the TMC chief for supporting the grand alliance in Bihar in its fight against BJP.

Banerjee had also congratulated Kumar over Twitter and termed the victory of the grand alliance as the defeat of "intolerance".

The JD(U) leadership had last week extended its support to Banerjee in her fight against BJP and had said that, along with AAP and TMC, it would fight to strengthen cooperative federalism in the country.