- Mamata observes a minute's silence on the atrocities that have taken place in Manipur
- Mamata: We are planning to send a team of chief ministers to Manipur on behalf of INDIA... I have spoken to Arvind Kejriwal... We will settle this matter with other leaders soon
- Mamata: Modiji, what haven't you done to insult Bengal... You can insult as much as you want, doesn't affect me, but don't arrange private tea parties and insult our leaders
- Mamata: I am sorry for the violence which took place... The death toll was much higher during CPM era... 29 people died in rural polls, 18 among them were TMC workers...Who killed them? Did Trinamul kill Trinamul? We will compensate all victims irrespective of party colour... We don't differentiate
- Mamata: I will ask our workers to conduct the August 5 gherao programme 100 metres away of the BJP leaders' homes... We should hold this programme at block levels and not at booth levels
- Mamata: I am pleased to be able to form an inclusive alliance called INDIA... Henceforth all fights against the BJP will be fought under the banner of India... Bharat jitega, that's our slogan... BJP has crossed all levels of tolerance
- Mamata: If we don't get our pending money from Delhi, then we will march to Delhi on Gandhi's birth anniversary on October 2
- Mamata: What happened to BJP's slogan of Beti Bachao slogan? Today women are raped and burnt, their dignity snatched and, like in cases of Bilkis Bano, their justice denied
- Mamata: We express our solidarity to the people of Manipur... We want to tell the people of Manipur that India stands by you
- Mamata Banerjee: I congratulate you for your tremendous performance in three tiers of panchayat... I urge you to peacefully form your respective boards after authorities give you permission
- Mamata Banerjee starts her speech amid loud cheer
- Abhishek Banerjee: But before that we show them a trailer. On 5 August, Saturday, TMC will gherao houses of BJP leaders of all ranks across the state from 10 am to 6 pm. This gherao will be in a peaceful manner without resorting to any violence. We won't allow movement of state BJP leaders in or out of their homes.
- Abhishek Banerjee: I thank the people of this state for reposing their faith in Trinamul Congress...I was wrong. I thought we would have a difference of 10 per cent over our nearest rival. The difference has turned out to be 30 per cent. The more you come after us, the stronger we get.
- Abhishek: We had promised during Naba Jowar Campaign that we would take this fight to Delhi against BJP's deprivation of 1.15 lakh crore... I seek your consent once again, will you go to Delhi, it would be our responsibility to arrange your transport
- Abhishek: Today we give a call for Dilli Chalo in the days ahead to take our fight outside Krishi Bhavan in Delhi to snatch our demand for pending NREGA money
- Abhishek Banerjee starts speaking
- Mamata Banerjee reaches venue, supporters give a standing ovation to the chief minister
- Saayoni Ghosh takes podium amid huge applause from the gathering
- Firhad Hakim addressing the gathering. "CPM is extinct, but our fight continues... The fight today is to save the country... It's a call given by Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee from Bangalore"
- Abhishek Banerjee reaches venue, welcomed with thunderous applause
- Minister Shobhan Deb Chattopadhyay addressing the rally now
- Mamata Banerjee yet to reach; almost all MPs and MLAs of the party already on stage
- Artist Suvaprasanna, who sounded a bit out of tune over poll violence and other issues in the recent past, also seen on stage
- Anit Thapa, leader of Bharatiya Gorkha Prajatantrik Morcha and a TMC ally in Darjeeling hills, also on stage and also among list of speakers today
Abhishek Banerjee addresses rally.
Tens of thousands of Trinamul Congress workers from villages and towns across the state are streaming into Kolkata for the ruling party’s ‘Marty’s Day’ rally on Friday.
Many enthusiastic party workers, buoyed by victory in the recent panchayat polls, have already arrived from the districts. They have been put up in camps set up by the party at Salt Lake and elsewhere.
The TMC, which is part of the newly formed non-BJP alliance I.N.D.I.A, is likely to spell out at the rally its strategy for strengthening opposition unity and its design to counter the saffron party in the state.
Telegraph picture
Telegraph picture
"The July 21 Martyrs' Day Rally holds a special place in our hearts. We have been dedicating this day to our martyrs and party workers," West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee has said in a video message, reports PTI
The rally, considered to be a demonstration of TMC's mass support and strength, is being held when several leaders of the party are behind bars in corruption cases. The cases are being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Telegraph picture
Posters and banners bearing photographs of party supremo Mamata Banerjee and asking people to join the rally to be held in the five-point Esplanade crossing have dotted the streets, lanes and by lanes of the city.
Lakhs of people are expected to attend the rally the party has been organising for many years in memory of 13 Congress supporters who were shot dead in police firing in 1993 during a march to the state secretariat - Writers Buildings - when the CPI(M)-led Left Front was in power in the state.
Mamata Banerjee was the state Youth Congress chief at that time and she continued to hold the rally on the day every year even after forming the Trinamool Congress on January 1, 1998.
Mukul Roy who is walking with his son Subhrangshu, had surreptitiously travelled to Delhi in April this year with an intent to lobby with the central BJP leadership and had asserted to the media that he was very much part of the BJP camp, was seen attending the July 21 Martyrs Day programme of the Trinamul Congress. The Telegraph picture