Mamata: TMC to win in Bengal by ‘havoc majority’
CM hits back at PM’s ‘Ram Card’ swipe
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised that the people of West Bengal “would bid farewell” to the ruling Trinamul Congress with the “Ram Card” in the coming Assembly polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, amid largescale defections by party MLAs to the BJP, exuded confidence in returning to power for a third consecutive term with a “havoc majority” as two former TMC MLAs, now in the saffron party, met her on Monday, triggering speculation of their possible comeback.
The TMC supremo made the statement in the Assembly Monday while replying to the debate on the state budget, a vote on account in an election year, that she had presented last week. “Do not worry. Finish the pending work. Talk about development work of our government. In the Assembly polls, the TMC will come to power again in the state with a havoc majority,” Ms Banerjee said, without specifying any numbers.
Showing the victory sign after a photo-op with all MLAs at the end of the three-day budget session, that also marked the 16th Assembly’s closure, she later said: “Many are claiming I will not return, but I will be back.”
Her positive gesture came after Bongaon North MLA Bishwajit Das and Noapara MLA Sunil Singh, who defected to the BJP from the TMC in June 2019 along with several councillors, held confidential meetings with her in her Assembly chamber on Monday, in a dramatic twist. Mr Singh is a relative of Barrackpore BJP MP Arjun Singh. Mr Das and Mr Singh claimed, however, that they had met the CM in their capacity
■as MLAs, on the subject of work in their constituencies.
Countering Mr Modi’s attacks on her over nonimplementation of the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi in the state, the CM earlier told the House that the names of 2.5 lakh farmers, who are eligible to avail of benefits under the welfare scheme, had already been sent to the Central government but it had not released any cash benefits to them.