Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that if she survives, she will surely displace the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from power in the state after foiling alleged attempts by the saffron camp’s central leadership to disintegrate TMC.
“If I survive, I will surely displace the BJP from the position of power in West Bengal. Their central leadership in New Delhi is trying to disintegrate the Trinamool Congress. They are threatening our elected public representatives like MPs, MLAs, and councillors. But I will ultimately foil all such attempts,” she said at a sit-in demonstration at Y-channel in Kolkata.
This was her first public programme since the assembly election results were announced on May 4, marking a landslide defeat for TMC and the end of Mamata Banerjee’s 15-year rule.
She made the statement at an unusually small gathering, with just five TMC MPs and six party legislators present at the dais.
The MPs present were the party’s Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, Kalyan Banerjee; Lok Sabha member Mala Roy; and Rajya Sabha members Derek O’Brien, Dola Sen, and Samirul Islam. Currently, TMC has 41 MPs in both Houses of Parliament.
The legislators present were Firhad Hakim, Biman Bandopadhyay, Nayna Bandopadhyay, Madan Mitra, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, and Ashok Deb.
At present, TMC’s tally in the 294-seat West Bengal assembly is 80, including Ritabrata Banerjee and Samiran Saha, who were expelled from the party on Monday.
Speaking on the occasion, Mamata Banerjee also criticised two private hospitals, which reportedly denied admission to her nephew and TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee after he was assaulted at Sonarpur in South 24 Parganas district on May 30.
She said that when she took him to the hospital in serious condition, officials initially demanded permission from the chief executive officer to admit him. He was admitted to trauma care, but later, the CEO told her that due to pressure, he was unable to admit him.
The private hospital at Minto Park in central Kolkata, which Mamata referred to, decided not to admit Abhishek Banerjee after a thorough medical examination and issued a certificate stating “admission not required”, a copy of which is available with IANS.
(IANS)
