New Delhi,mar 13:
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee may campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi in the run-up to the crucial 2019 polls.
The Trinamool Congress chief, who has expressed confidence of her party winning all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, had dropped hint on Tuesday that she may visit Varanasi and campaign against PM Modi.
“I might even go to Varanasi if Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party chief) and Mayawati (Bahujan Samaj Party president) call me. They have my moral support,” the West Bengal Chief Minister said.Seen as a major figure of the anti-BJP front, Mamata Banerjee recently brought leaders of 23 opposition parties on one platform during her January 19 rally in Kolkata.
The next meeting of the ‘Mahagathbandhan’ (grand opposition) is on March 15 which Banerjee will miss due to prior commitments in Kolkata.
Mamata had been extremely vocal about the Narendra Modi government and its functioning and vowed to defeat the BJP-led NDA alliance in the Lok Sabha polls.
Attacking PM Modi, the firebrand TMC chief said, “This is a challenging election for PM Modi and we are seeing a number of strikes – and I mean political strikes, don’t misquote me – like demonetisation. I had opposed demonetisation from the beginning; people have suffered a lot because of it.”Mamata ‘Didi’ also warned that the upcoming Lok Sabha polls will sound the “death knell” for the BJP and bring an end to Narendra Modi’s “reign of fear”.The Trinamool Congress supremo said the electoral battle will be between a “united India and some isolated people” as she mounted a scalding assault on the BJP and the PM. “The 2019 Lok Sabha polls will sound the death knell for the BJP and give people freedom from the reign of fear of Narendra Modi. It will be a fight between a united India and some isolated people,” she said in a press conference after releasing the first list of TMC candidates for all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.Mamata Banerjee reiterated her ‘Modi hatao desh bachao’ slogan. Making the announcement, Mamata Banerjee said, “Moon Moon Sen will be our candidate from Asansol, Satabdi Roy from Birbhum.”
Mamata also announced that her party would be contesting from Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, and Andaman and Bihar seats. Polling for the Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases starting April 11 and will conclude on May 19.
The counting of votes will be on May 23.West Bengal will have polling in all seven phases, beginning April 11 and concluding on May 19.
