THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
Kolkata, June 2: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that the BJP won the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections by rigging the counting process in 177 of the state’s 294 constituencies.
Speaking at a day-long dharna in central Kolkata, Banerjee also announced that anti-BJP parties would soon meet in Delhi to chart a nationwide strategy against the ruling party.
“Very soon, all anti-BJP parties will meet in Delhi. Wait for a few days, and we will soon announce our country-wide course of action,” Banerjee said, referring to the scheduled INDIA bloc meeting next week.
Dharna Over Alleged Post-Poll Attacks
Banerjee began her sit-in protest at Esplanade’s Y-channel, alleging attacks on TMC workers and leaders following the BJP’s victory in the Assembly polls.
She said she would stand by party workers facing arrests and alleged harassment in the aftermath of the elections.
“I will fight or die,” she declared while addressing supporters at the protest site.
The TMC chief said the party was denied permission to hold the protest at Rani Rashmoni Road and was also not allowed to set up a stage or use microphones.
“We will move court if other parties are allowed to hold political programmes at the venue where we were denied permission to protest. Law cannot be imposed with discrimination,” she said.
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Attack on BJP and Prime Minister
Banerjee accused the BJP of using “money and power” to engineer defections from the TMC and alleged that people, traders and hawkers were living in fear under the new political dispensation.
She also targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has left Bengal in the hands of anti-socials, bulldozer-happy politicians, pushing the state into darkness,” she alleged.
Claims of Violence Against TMC Workers
The former chief minister claimed that 12 TMC workers had been killed since the Assembly elections, while thousands of party activists had been arrested and many forced to flee their homes.
At the same time, she maintained that the departure of leaders from the party would ultimately strengthen the TMC.
Allegations Over Attack on Abhishek Banerjee
Banerjee alleged that the recent attack on her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee at Sonarpur was pre-planned.
“The BJP had smuggled in its workers from before, fed them and even tutored them how to act and talk. Had a TMC worker not supplied Abhishek with a helmet, the injury from the stone hurled at him could have turned fatal,” she alleged.
She further claimed that private hospitals faced pressure not to admit the injured MP.
Addressing the controversy over signatures of TMC MLAs endorsing Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition, Banerjee defended the process and accused the BJP of politicising the issue.
“The Assembly Speaker should have conducted forensic tests of the signatures if he had any confusion about their authenticity. The BJP is playing a dirty game,” she said.