Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked people to ensure that the Trinamul Congress got handsome majority as she apprehended that the BJP would employ poaching tactics if her party won the Assembly polls by a slender margin.
“I can only form the government if our candidates like Becharam Manna, Ashima Patra and Dilip Yadav win the election. We can’t form a government if I win alone. We are contesting 291 seats and our friends in the (Darjeeling) hills are contesting the remaining three seats. I have to win at least 225-230 seats and I can’t form a government if I don’t win those,” said Mamata at rally in Singur on Wednesday.
“Otherwise, the BJP will buy some traitors for Rs 5 lakh or Rs 5 crore. So, you have to cast more votes for Trinamul candidates for the party to win more seats and save it from traitors.”
Opposition parties had been saying the BJP would buy out Trinamul MLAs to form the government if the ruling party got a marginal majority.
Trinamul insiders said the party leadership had already discussed the issue of the BJP’s possible ploy to buy their MLAs as it had been hit by defections in the run up to the polls. The ruling party leaders referred to the incident of Karnataka where the BJP allegedly employed horse-trading to topple the Congress government and grab power.
“The BJP is using its money power to grab power in Bengal by any means. So, it is important to make more MLAs win in this election. We have a doubt that if we have 155-170 MLAs, the BJP will indulge in horse-trading to form the government,” said a senior Trinamul leader.
Mamata had expressed the fear of horse-trading in a letter written on March28 to anti-BJP leaders, including Sonia Gandhi, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and M.K. Stalin.
“The BJP has amassed unlimited resources from questionable sources, which it is using to topple duly elected non-BJP government and to engineer defections in non-BJP parties,” Mamata has written in her three-page letter.
A section of Trinamul insiders said Mamata’s move to express her fear was a political alarm for the people of Bengal amid the poll season and a threat for the BJP if it even tried to do horse-trading after the election.
“What our chief minister told at her Singur rally is also a pre-emptive attempt to foil any foul play by the BJP. We are getting advantages in a few seats where the BJP has fielded Trinamul turncoats as old timers in their camps are very annoyed with the practice,” said a Trinamul leader in Hooghly.
The BJP criticised Mamata for her apprehension of horse-trading saying all such allegations were nothing but her signs of defeat.
“First, she had said outsiders were going to loot the polls. Then, she said the ECI was conspiring against them. Then, the narrative shifted to EVM hacking and now, she is alleging possible horse-trading. All these are signs of her inevitable defeat,” said BJP’s chief spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya.
Mamata on Wednesday held three back-to-back rallies in Hooghly’s Goghat and Singur, and Howrah’s Uluberia and accused the BJP of parachuting leaders from outside with cash to influence voters with an appeal to the Election Commission to conduct raids on hotels where the BJP leaders were staying.
“The goons from outside are staying at resorts in Arambagh with bags full of cash. Snatch the bag of cash from them. I will reward those who will help to seize the bag with cash. They can’t fight alone against Mamata. They can’t fight against a daughter here. You will inform police and the Election Commission about the goons,” Mamata said at the rally in Goghat.
Mamata said in Singur that her government would set up agro-industries on government land in Singur and later would work towards setting up large-scale industries.
“We have earmarked a stretch of 11 acres of government land in Singur where we will set up agro- industries and it will create jobs. After setting up agro-based industries, we will go forward to set up large scale industries,” said Mamata.
Mamata’s proposal drew sharp criticism from her rivals, including the CPM candidate at Singur, Srijan Bhattacharya.
“Mamata Banerjee must apologise to former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and people of Bengal as she ruined the hope of youths by destroying an industry that was almost complete in Singur. She is now planning to set up an agro-industry on 11 acres of land after ruining an industry that would have given jobs to thousands of people,” said Srijan.
