Mamata Banerjee, who became the chairperson of Trinamool Congress (TMC) unopposed on Wednesday, gave a call for unity of regional parties to take on the BJP, and said the TMC will contest the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Uttar Pradesh.
Emphasizing her national ambition to defeat the BJP by uniting all regional parties, Banerjee said she will visit Uttar Pradesh on February 8, and might go to Benaras, and support Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav ahead of state assembly elections on February 10.
She further said, “I am asking all regional parties to come together and defeat the BJP.”
On her ties with the Congress, Banerjee said, “We told the Congress that they have a bit of an ego. I remember Rabindranath Tagore’s song — if nobody listens to you, then go alone”.
She clearly said the Congress was important in the journey of tying all regional parties together but it was “not interested” in fighting against the BJP. She also alleged that the Congress helps the BJP in Meghalaya and Haryana.
She gave clear instructions to her party cadres to stay united and win all 42 seats of West Bengal in the Lok Sabha in 2024. “You keep West Bengal safe and bring 42 seats. We will fight countrywide to defeat the BJP,” Banerjee added.
Banerjee had founded the party in 1998 after breaking away from the Congress and has headed it ever since. After two unsuccessful attempts at the hustings in the 2001 and 2006 assembly polls, the party came to power in 2011, defeating the mighty Left Front regime, riding the crest of massive public outrage against the Communists over a raft of issues including alleged forcible acquisition of farmland for industrialization.
It stormed to power for the third consecutive term in May last year after bagging 213 out of the 294 seats in the state assembly.
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