Kolkata: Notwithstanding the bickering
between her party and the Congress over the recent civic
elections in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata
Banerjee today said the two parties would contest the next
Assembly polls in alliance.
"We had contested recent civic election alone and won. I
salute Ma, Mati, Manush for the victory. But I will not blame
Delhi (Congress high command for the collapse of seat sharing
talks in the civic polls)," Banerjee told her party`s annual
Martyrs Day rally here.
"I hope that the Congress and Trinamool Congress will
fight together to dislodge the CPI(M) from power," she said.
Calling for an early Assembly election instead of the
scheduled June 2011, she said, "the CPI(M) will have to be
removed from West Bengal in the next three or four months...We
have won the semifinal (civic polls), now get ready to win the
final (Assembly poll)."
"You have suffered torture for long. Can you not wait for
three or four months more?" she asked party workers.
AICC General Secretary in-charge of Bengal K Keshav Rao,
who was present at the rally said though there were hitches in
seat-sharing in the civic election, the allies would jointly
contest the Assembly elections.
"CPI(M) will cease to exist" after the Assembly polls,
Rao claimed.
WBPCC chief Manas Bhuniya also expressed confidence about
an alliance in the Assembly elections.
Describing Banerjee as a "capable railway minister" he
ridiculed the CPI(M) demand for her resignation after Monday`s
train accident at Sainthia in Birbhum district.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sent a message
to Banerjee congratulating her for her "relentless struggle".
Apparently referring to the Left Front`s repeated
electoral setbacks, he said that winds of change were blowing
across the state.
-PTI
