'Parties Will Join Hands to Defeat BJP': West Bengal State Chief Mamata Banerjee on Opposition Unity
© AP Photo / Bikas Das
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Ever since Bihar State Chief Nitish Kumar parted ways with the BJP last month, opposition leaders in India have ramped up their efforts to forge unity to stop PM Narendra Modi from winning a third consecutive term in office. Mamata Banerjee is the latest to call for uniting all parties opposed to the incumbent administration in Delhi.
India's West Bengal State Chief and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed confidence that the opposition parties will join forces to prevent the federally ruling BJP's return to power in 2024.
Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stated that Nitish Kumar (of Janata Dal-United party), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) boss Hemant Soren and other leaders, including her, will fight the 2024 national polls in an alliance against the BJP.
"I, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, and many others will come together in 2024. All opposition parties will join hands to defeat the BJP. All of us will be on one side and the BJP on the other. The BJP's arrogance of 300 seats will be its nemesis," she said during a party program in the state capital Kolkata on Thursday. "The BJP thinks they can threaten us with (federal probe agencies) CBI and ED. The more they pursue such tricks, the more they will get closer to defeat in next year's Panchayat election and 2024 Lok Sabha polls."
Mamata's statement comes amid several opposition leaders stepping up their meetings to strategize about the 2024 polls.
Earlier this week, Nitish Kumar, the JD-U leader and Bihar state chief who broke with the BJP in his state, met several top leaders of parties opposed to the BJP, including Rahul Gandhi (Congress), and Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India of West Bengal).
More meetings with leaders like Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena of Maharashtra) and Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh) are lined up in the coming days.
Coming back to Mamata Banerjee, she has long had an acrimonious relationship with the BJP, particularly after the TMC trumped the federally ruling party in a high-octane battle in the state polls last year.
After handing the BJP one of its worst defeats in recent history, Banerjee started to pitch herself for a national role, but several top leaders of her party became embroiled in corruption cases, leading to their arrests by central investigative agencies.
The most high-profile among them was Partha Chatterjee, who served as the minister of commerce and industries in her government.
While Banerjee has termed the arrests of her party's leaders as a political vendetta, the BJP has accused her of shielding the corrupt.
Banerjee, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), stated that Nitish Kumar (of Janata Dal-United party), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) boss Hemant Soren and other leaders, including her, will fight the 2024 national polls in an alliance against the BJP.
"I, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, and many others will come together in 2024. All opposition parties will join hands to defeat the BJP. All of us will be on one side and the BJP on the other. The BJP's arrogance of 300 seats will be its nemesis," she said during a party program in the state capital Kolkata on Thursday. "The BJP thinks they can threaten us with (federal probe agencies) CBI and ED. The more they pursue such tricks, the more they will get closer to defeat in next year's Panchayat election and 2024 Lok Sabha polls."
Mamata's statement comes amid several opposition leaders stepping up their meetings to strategize about the 2024 polls.
Earlier this week, Nitish Kumar, the JD-U leader and Bihar state chief who broke with the BJP in his state, met several top leaders of parties opposed to the BJP, including Rahul Gandhi (Congress), and Sitaram Yechury (Communist Party of India of West Bengal).
More meetings with leaders like Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena of Maharashtra) and Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party of Uttar Pradesh) are lined up in the coming days.
Coming back to Mamata Banerjee, she has long had an acrimonious relationship with the BJP, particularly after the TMC trumped the federally ruling party in a high-octane battle in the state polls last year.
After handing the BJP one of its worst defeats in recent history, Banerjee started to pitch herself for a national role, but several top leaders of her party became embroiled in corruption cases, leading to their arrests by central investigative agencies.
The most high-profile among them was Partha Chatterjee, who served as the minister of commerce and industries in her government.
While Banerjee has termed the arrests of her party's leaders as a political vendetta, the BJP has accused her of shielding the corrupt.
