`TMC will emerge as third largest party after LS polls`

Kolkata: Putting up a brave front after the Ram Lila Maidan rally fiasco, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed her Trinamool Congress would emerge as the third largest party and play a big role in national politics after the Lok Sabha polls.

"There are two big parties Congress and BJP in our country for a long time. And, know it that Trinamool Congress will emerge as the third largest party," Banerjee told reporters at the airport here on her return from Delhi. The rally at the Ramlila Ground in Delhi, billed as a platform to launch Banerjee`s national ambitions with Anna Hazare on the dais, fizzled out with the anti-corruption crusader giving it a miss. Claiming that the party would surge from the state, Banerjee said "Trinamool Congress will have a vital role in national politics with the blessings of Ma, Mati, Manush." She said TMC is fighting in all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal against CPI(M), Congress and BJP. "We believe that there will be a people`s jote (alliance) and not an unholy jote (alliance)." She said her party would also contest in Tripura, Assam, Jharkhand and Bihar and in some seats in Orissa, apart from Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. She said yesteryear cine star Biswajeet Chatterjee would contest from Delhi and names of other nominees to fight from various states would be released gradually.