CM hits out at Cong, warns of non-cooperation in Parl

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hit out at opposition Congress for boycotting the Assembly almost every day during the ongoing Winter Session and warned that her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), would not cooperate with it in Parliament.

"Some people think that for the sake of getting their photos printed in newspapers, they will continue to spread canards and false allegations and keep on boycotting the House. Whom are they boycotting? They are boycotting their own principles and politics," she said at the Assembly.

"You (Congress) cannot do it every day. I have noticed it for five years that whenever I come to deliver a speech, they (Congress) leave the House on any excuse and boycott it. If you have anything to say, come to the House and speak," the Chief Minister added.

The TMC supremo claimed that the Congress sought her party's cooperation "even to move one step in Parliament" and added that the same party was boycotting the Assembly and spreading false allegations against the TMC in Bengal. "In Parliament, you (Congress) cannot move even a single step without the TMC and here, every day you are boycotting the House and spreading false allegations against the government. On price hike, you question the TMC. Why can't you question the BJP on price hike?

"Keep it in mind that the way you behave here, you will get the same treatment in Delhi. You cannot seek cooperation in Delhi and continue boycotting the House here every day," she said.

"I am neither like Buddhadeb Bhattacharya nor like the CPI(M). I will not give importance to those who are lesser in number. If there is even one (MLA), I give equal respect to him/her," she said, acknowledging MLAs from the Hills who were present.

The opposition — the Congress and the Left Front — has boycotted the House proceedings several times during the ongoing Winter Session of the Assembly, after their demands for discussions on issues such as the dengue situation in the state were not allowed.