Won’t be deterred by Modi’s vendetta politics: Mamata

Reacting sharply to the CBI issuing summons to two TMC MPs in connection with the alleged Rose Valley chit fund scam, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was resorting to “politics of vendetta”, but asserted that her party could not be stopped in this manner.

“This is politics of vendetta. Trinamool Congress cannot be stopped in this way,” the TMC chief said. TMC parliamentary party leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay and party MP Tapas Pal have been asked to appear at the CBI office here on December 30.

Banerjee had stated in Delhi on Tuesday that the country was witnessing a “super emergency” under Modi’s rule without its formal declaration. All sections of the society are being frightened by “Gabbar is coming, Gabbar is coming”, she had said and added that the country could not be run through such threats. She had also accused the Prime Minister of taking away the people’s rights.

Banerjee, however, declined to comment on the Union Cabinet’s decision on Wednesday to approve the promulgation of an ordinance to make possession of a large number of scrapped banknotes a penal offence, but said: “the common people should not suffer”.

“Let me first go through the ordinance. I have to see the language. Without seeing it, it is difficult to say anything at this stage,” she told reporters.

 In an indication of emerging political equations, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday extended her warm wishes and greetings to members of the Congress party on its 132nd foundation day.

“Greetings and warm wishes to all at @INCIndia on their 132nd Foundation Day,” Banerjee tweeted. Banerjee’s tweet comes a day after she along with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and regional parties sought to put up a united face against demonetisation by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After the meeting of 8 parties and their joint press conference against demonetisation in New Delhi on Tuesday, Banerjee vowed to rope in more parties and take on the government in a united manner.

With the TMC and the Congress cozying up to each other on the issue of demonetisation, the political equation in Bengal has taken a new turn with the CPI(M) and the state unit of the Congress clueless about how to respond to the development.

The recent bonhomie between Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has ignited a fresh debate within the state Congress leadership which is opposed to the TMC in Bengal.

Senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan who till recently criticised Banerjee said: “We are guided by AICC and will do whatever they ask us to do.”

The CPI(M), which had faced the ire of its Left Front partners and several factions of the Marxist party itself for forging a pre-poll alliance with the Congress, was left red-faced after Tuesday’s joint press conference in New Delhi.

The CPI(M) leaders, however, tried to put up a brave face by saying, “you should not read too much,” CPI(M) politburo member Mohammed Salim said. Political experts felt that using the platform of demonetisation, Banerjee is planning to have an alliance with Congress in 2019 so that the two parties get maximum number of seats in the state. The Left Front and BJP have two LS seats each while Congress has four seats and the remaining 34 seats belong to TMC.  

Political experts are of the view that Trinamool would try to bag as many seats as possible and to do so it would try to have Congress as the alliance partner. If Congress and Trinamool get 40 out of 42 seats, then it will be possible to put pressure on the ruling party.