A large number of Mamata Banerjee ‘admirers’ in West Bengal — where the mandate of 2019 parliamentary polls will have far reaching impact — are not happy with ‘Didi’.
Voters in Jangipur, Asansol and Bardhaman-Durgapur parliamentary segments seem to share the same views. Well, the reasons could be many, for someone who is the Chief Minister of a state, which for long has remained development starved especially under the Leftists.
However, one principal feature that has seemingly annoyed several self-confessed Mamata admirers was her much publicised Brigade Rally in Kolkata on January 19. ‘I think that was a strategic mistake. And I am saying this as a Mamata Banerjee fan. She should not have organised a show wherein all disgruntled and discredited and corrupt leaders from across the nation came together,’ Leena Debroy, a 32-plus social worker said. The views were endorsed by a Durgapur-based retired Social Welfare officer Ganesh Biswas.
‘I too had reposed much faith in our Didi. Even on Sharada Chit Fund scam and other allegation of corruption, I always thought Mamata Banerjee cannot be faulted. But why did she go to Brigade Ground and invited all corrupt leaders. Was this just for election?,’ he says unable to conceal the disapproval of Mamata Banerjee’s decision, Biswas said.
Speaking on similar vein, Sneha Biswas in Jangipur said, ‘The so called opposition unity as planned by Manata Banerjee is not acceptable. We do not want ‘Didi’ making such compromises on the issue of corruption wherein she shares dais with many questionable leaders’. Apparently, a large section of voters in West Bengal — and most of them still reposing faith in Mamata Banerjee — do not approve of some of the ‘crowd of leaders’ who gathered at Kolkata’s Brigade Ground on January 19.
The refrain among such a section is that they still approve of Banerjee and would like most, if not all, her 42 candidates win the parliamentary polls ; but they do have reservation that once the elections take place, the Trinamool Congress would indulge in open bargaining and sharing of dais and power with ‘tainted leaders’ from the cowbelt and the rest of India.
However, Trinamool Hawkers Union leader Chittaranjan Dhara in Durgapur says, ‘If you are ready for coalition politics, you cannot take a stand that such and such leaders can come and join us; and others need not. This is what is called compulsion of coalition politics and it is reality’. But he said, the people of Bengal and the rest of India are clear about one thing, they want the immediate ouster of the Modi-led-government.
The rally organised by Trinamool Congress was attended by a host of opposition leaders including the likes of Akhilesh Yadav, Farooq Abdullah, Sharad Yadav, Arvind Kejriwal, Tejaswi Yadav, M K Stalin, Shatrughan Sinha, Abhishekmanu Singhvi and Shatrughan Sinha.
