Mamata raises 'oust BJP' pitch: 'It won't get even 150 LS seats in 2019'

Kolkata: A sea of humanity defied torrential rain and inclement weather on Saturday to attend the July 21 Martyrs' Day rally, where Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee spelt out the party's strategy in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Raising the pitch for her proposed Federal Front of Opposition parties, Banerjee on Saturday predicted that the saffron outfit could end up with less than 150 seats in next year's general elections.

She also said her party would organise a huge rally at the Brigade Parade ground on January 19 next year, where leaders from all over the country, including those of the proposed Front, would call for defeating the BJP at the Centre.

Addressing party workers during the Martyrs' Day rally, she said: "Bengal will show the way to India, we will show the way to Parliament in the coming days."

The TMC supremo also announced: "We will win all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. It is our pledge. We will oust the BJP to save the country. We will organise a big rally here in January and invite all the (Opposition) leaders." She also charted out the party's programmes for the next few months.

Accusing the BJP of spreading hate politics, she said throughout the country, the party is trying to divide society. Referring to the statement made by the Prime Minister and Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Parliament on Friday that the state governments should take stern action to stop lynching, she said: "The party should first try to control the language of the state president. He talks about burning down police stations and assault the TMC supporters, thus polluting the social environment."

She added: "The BJP is involved in lynching throughout the country and the leaders have blood on their hands."

Banerjee said Congress leaders in Bengal should decide whether they will go with the TMC or not.

Referring to the collapse of the pandal at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's rally in Midnapore, she said: "The party that cannot prevent the collapse of a pandal, how do you expect them to run the country properly? But it is not about the pandal. They are trying to divide the country and this trend is dangerous."

The Chief Minister said canards are being spread against the TMC over the Panchayat elections.

"In Uttar Pradesh, 71 percent seats are won uncontested while in Sikkim 85 percent seats are won unopposed but no one says anything about that.

In Panchayat elections, local issues and candidates are important and in Jhargram, even the TMC could not file candidates in several seats but I did not complain about it. I pity those who fail to understand this small equation."