Kolkata: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee on Thursday claimed that assembly elections in West Bengal
could be advanced to October this year from scheduled May
2011.
"Any government can hold elections six months before
the end of its term. This is a political decision. I have
talks with the Union Home Minister (P Chidambaram) on many
matters. What the minister said I cannot disclose," she said
when asked whether she had talks with the Centre on elections.
"Do you think this government is running
constitutionally? State-sponsored terrorism is going in West
Bengal where there is bad governance and economic corruption.
The Centre has evidence and information," Banerjee told a
press conference here at the release of her party`s manifesto
for the May 30 civic poll in the state.
Banerjee, said, "It is our political calculation that
the Assembly elections will be held in October along with some
other states, including Bihar. You may or may not agree with
my calculations. We will demand it.
"A slogan for change is in the air. The mood of the
people is to change the government here. There is no
governance in West Bengal."
She accused the Left Front government of corruption,
violence, attacks on political rivals and negative development
in the last 33 years. "The sooner the Left Front government
goes, the better for West Bengal."
Yesterday, she had said that if the Marxists were
defeated in the civic elections, the assembly elections could
be held within three months.
Banerjee expressed the confidence that the Trinamool
Congress would wrest power from the CPI(M)-led Left Front in
the civic elections as also the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
Claiming that her party was committed to building a
new Bengal, she criticised Left Front chairman and CPI(M)
state secretary Biman Bose for claiming that the civic polls
would be marked by violence. "It is strange how a political
leader can express such a view."
Without naming Congress, Banerjee said "I urge the people
to see that anti-CPI(M) votes in the coming civic elections
are not split. Those who help the CPI(M) should not be
supported."
Banerjee who had formed the TC after parting ways with
the Congress in 1998 said, "Had they not helped the CPI(M)-led
Left Front government, it would have been out of power in
Bengal 20 years ago."
Nominees of TC and Congress are pitted against each other
in the civic elections in Kolkata and several of the remaining
80 municipalities though there has been local-level adjustment
in some.
She also alleged that BJP had `helped` the CPI(M) in
winning seven of the 15 seats the Left Front had got in the
Lok Sabha elections last year.
Referring to the anti-Maoist operations at Lalgarh,
Banerjee said "I will say that the state government has misled
the Centre and it was a wrong political decision on the part
of the Centre.
"The CPI(M) is reaping benefits of the operations with
CPI(M) goons opening camps with arms there. It is dangerous
for the country`s internal security."
PTI
