Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked the BJP government at the Centre and said that it won't be easy for the ruling party to break her state as it will have to fight with the Royal Bengal Tiger first.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Addressing a programme of Titagarh Wagons, Mamata said, "They (BJP) have no work, their job is to take over the state governments through 3-4 agencies. They've taken Maharashtra, now Jharkhand but Bengal has defeated them. It's not easy to break Bengal as you have to fight the Royal Bengal Tiger first.''


 



 


Asserting that the saffron party will lose elections in 2024, she said, "I can talk about the numbers and where they will be coming from" I am, however, confident that the BJP won't come to power."


"I believe that BJP will not come in 2024 (to power). Unemployment in India is increasing by 40% but it decreased by 45% in Bengal... Today media trial is going on and they are calling people accused. They just want to create a bad impression of Bengal,'' she added.


 



 


The chief minister also slammed the media for launching a "malicious campaign" against her party and TMC leaders. Banerjee also asserted that anyone who was proven guilty by the court must be punished but probe agencies must not be used to malign political parties, in an apparent reference to the arrest of her cabinet colleague and senior TMC leader Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a school recruitment scam.


"When you run a big institution, there can be mistakes. If anyone has committed any mistake, and it is proven legally, he or she must be punished. But I am against any malicious media campaign. The media is playing the role of kangaroo (court). A senior judge also said that recently," she said.


Banerjee claimed that businessmen, too, along with opposition leaders, were being ''threatened by agencies at the behest of the ruling BJP at the Centre.''


"I don't have a problem if agencies function impartially. These should not be used to malign parties," she said. In an apparent reference to the suspension of 19 opposition members from Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, she said, ''These days, if you protest against something, you get suspended.''


Among the suspended MPs, seven belong to the TMC and six to the DMK.