Buoyed by TMC’s triumph in the Assembly elections in West Bengal earlier this year, Mamata Banerjee is trying to make in-roads in the Northeast.
While the TMC has kicked off a membership drive in Assam entrusting Congress turncoat Sushmita Dev with the job, in Tripura the party celebrated the foundation day of its student wing, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), on Saturday.
With TMC eyeing the Northeast, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took a dig at Mamata Banerjee saying, “The more she visits Assam and Tripura, the more it will benefit us.”
He further said that he will welcome her by rolling out a red carpet.
Taking a dig at the post-poll violence in West Bengal, Himanta said that polls in Assam and Bengal took place at the same time but not a stone was pelted at any house in Assam.
In Bengal, the court had to order a CBI probe, he added.
Mamata has repeatedly expressed confidence in her party’s ability to win Tripura saying “we will win Tripura next”.
The CM is also eyeing a larger national role and by attacking the Narendra Modi-led BJP government on several occasions over different issues she is trying to position herself and the TMC as an alternative to the BJP.
On Saturday, she slammed the Centre for allegedly letting loose central agencies on her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a coal scam case, claiming that some BJP ministers were working hand in glove with the coal mafia.
Accusing the Narendra Modi government of trying to “bulldoze the federal structure” of the country and snatching away the rights of the states, she proposed to call a meeting of all chief ministers to fight against “the Centre’s authoritarianism”.
“The BJP and the Union government can’t fight us politically. The party was defeated in the assembly polls and now they are using central agencies against our leaders like Abhishek Banerjee and others. But let me tell them, they can’t bulldoze or intimidate us by such threats. We will continue our fight against them,” she said.
