Mamata questions Shah's target of 200 seats in Bengal

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday questioned BJP leader Amit Shah's assertion of targeting 200 out of 294 Assembly seats in Bengal in the 2021 elections.

"Why has the BJP said that they are targeting 200 seats? Why have they not set their eyes on all the seats? They are targeting only the seats won by Trinamool Congress and not those won by CPI(M) and Congress. The CPI(M) and the Congress have had a tacit understanding with the BJP that had enabled the saffron party to win seats in Lok Sabha. This game is over and TMC will fight the elections with the aim to win all the seats," Banerjee said, speaking at the event launch of the mass outreach programme 'Banglar Garbo Mamata' on Monday.

In the 2016 Assembly polls, TMC had won 211 seats while BJP could manage only three seats.

"The CPI(M) and the Congress are fishing in troubled waters. I have appealed to them to come together and join us in our protests against the anti-people policies of the Central government. But they have remained aloof as they have an understanding with the BJP," she added.

Banerjee said that there were some weaknesses in her own party too, as a section of party leaders were considering themselves bigger than the party. She advised her partymen to inform the common people about this game-plan of CPI(M), Congress and BJP, through their various outreach programmes.

"I am surprised to find that CPI(M) and Congress go on criticising me, but have not protested against the Delhi violence," she asserted.