'Delhi chalo', says Mamata Banerjee amid efforts to form anti-BJP front

Mamata Banerjee

In the backdrop of efforts by her to unite regional parties to take on the BJP, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today said their target was Delhi and the Red Fort, and asserted that the saffron party will never succeed in efforts to win West Bengal. BJP President Amit Shah had said after the party's win in Tripura that its golden era would be when it wrests West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka from rival parties. "Some are saying that the BJP's next target is Bengal.

But for the sake of the country we have set our target on Delhi, on Lal Quila (Red Fort)," she told a public meeting here, indicating that Trinamool Congress would play a major role in national politics. . "Delhi Chalo... Lal Qila Chalo... We believe in Netaji (Subhas Chandra Bose's) slogan. Bengal will not bow down to anyone", she said. Curtailing her speech due to heavy showers, she said, "Bengal has always shown people the way". "Bengal does not want anything and also does not support violence. It does not allow people to indulge in violence. Bengal wants the country and its people to stay well," Banerjee said.

She had earlier downplayed the BJP's victory in Tripura and said it would never win in West Bengal and Odisha. Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress chief, had described the poll outcome in Tripura as CPI-M's "surrender" and the "failure" of the Congress to agree to an alliance with her party. She also accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of looting the poor people's money from their bank accounts and "using them to win the elections in Tripura".

"Our job is to protect the poor and not to loot their money from their bank account and then use them in wining elections. The two things cannot run simultaneously," she said. During the programme, the chief minister inaugurated a cluster of projects.

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