Mamata Banerjee on Monday made it clear she cannot possibly leave to attend the INDIA meeting in Delhi on June 1, with nine key seats in her south Bengal bastion voting on the day and the state’s cyclone-hit people looking to her for help.
Her comments risked further attacks from the state Congress and the CPM — both INDIA partners that have been questioning her sincerity in fighting the BJP.
However, Trinamool Congress sources underscored the legitimacy of Mamata’s reasons and added she was likely to send representatives.
“The INDIA team has already called a meeting on June 1,” Mamata told a rally at Burrabazar in the evening. “I said, ‘See, I cannot go on June 1. Here, we have voting in 10 seats (including an Assembly by-election) that day’. There are elections in Punjab, other places.”
She added: “Uttar Pradesh… granted it’s their (BJP’s) state, but there is Akhilesh (Yadav, Samajwadi Party president). Voting in Bihar, too. Voting goes on till late at night, 10pm or later, for every person in queue till 6pm. How will I leave everything and go?”
Mamata said she would also be busy with relief and rehabilitation for cyclone-hit areas.
“There is also the cyclone. Cyclone relief on the one hand; elections on the other. I will have to take care of everything together,” she said.
“But my priority is the relief, the people. To help the people in every possible way…. I am at the meeting here but my heart is there.”
Senior leaders of the INDIA bloc are to meet in Delhi on Saturday, the last day of voting, to assess the Opposition combine’s poll performance and firm up a strategy ahead of the results.
The proposed meeting, convened by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, is likely in the afternoon, when polling would be under way.
Trinamool leaders said in private that neither Mamata nor her nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee – with voting scheduled in his Diamond Harbour constituency on June 1 – was likely to attend the meeting.
Party seniors underlined Mamata’s long-time practice of keeping close tabs on the developments through the voting hours, and running her own war room of sorts till late at night on the days of polling. Besides, they said, she tends not to even go outdoors on such days, so leaving the state would be unlikely.
“This has been conveyed to the (meeting) organisers. They should have been more considerate while scheduling the meeting,” a Trinamool source said.
“It’s not a problem exclusive to Trinamool. It affects the Samajwadis, the Aam Aadmi Party, the RJD, the JMM, and even the Congress.”
Besides Diamond Harbour, polling will be held in Kolkata Dakshin (the backyard of Mamata and Abhishek), Kolkata Uttar, Jadavpur, Dum Dum, Barasat, Basirhat, Jaynagar and Mathurapur. A Trinamool defeat in any of the nine seats would be deemed an upset.
The Assembly by-election will be held for the Baranagar seat.
“INDIA has held four major meetings and a rally, and Trinamool was never unrepresented,” a Trinamool Rajya Sabha member said.
“Her (Mamata’s) commitment to the cause (of fighting the BJP) is beyond question; she doesn’t need certificates from anybody.”
On Wednesday, Mamata is likely to conduct an aerial survey of the places hit the worst by Cyclone Remal. She had planned it for Tuesday, but forecasts have suggested the weather might not be conducive for a helicopter ride.
Sources in her party also mentioned delayed clearances for the aerial survey from the Election Commission of India — given that the Model Code of Conduct is in force — and the dearth of air force helicopters available for the initiative.
The CPM and the state Congress have been going hammer and tongs at Mamata since she decided to go it alone in Bengal out of frustration at the Congress’s tardiness in working out seat shares.
In recent weeks, though, Mamata has repeatedly pledged her support for INDIA, claimed credit for its formation and naming, and asserted that Trinamool would play a crucial role in the formation of a non-BJP government at the Centre. At the Burrabazar rally, she asserted that the NDA would not retain power.
