Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (April 19) said she will resign if it is proven that she called Union Home Minister Amit Shah after her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost the national party status. Banerjee said that her party's name will remain the All India Trinamool Congress. The ECI withdrew the national party status of the TMC, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) last week.
Refuting the claims made by West Bengal leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari that she had called Amit Shah, Banerjee said, "I will resign if it is proven that I called up Amit Shah over TMC's national party status.” She was speaking to reporters at West Bengal's state secretariat.
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Suvendu Adhikari’s claim
Earlier on Tuesday, Adhikari had claimed that Banerjee had dialled Shah to request him to intervene and restore the Trinamool's national status after the Election Commission revoked national party status. “Yesterday, we saw how Mamata Banerjee had demanded the resignation of Amit Shah. But, after the EC revoked the national party status, she had repeatedly called him to request that the decision be repealed. It, however, did not yield any result,” Adhikari said while addressing a rally at Singur in Hooghly district.
Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said, "It was the norm to review the national party status of all parties after 10 years. That would mean the next review should have been in 2026 … But they did it in 2019.” “My party's name will remain the 'All India Trinamool Congress'. If the BJP has any problem, they can approach the Election Commission and we will approach the common people,” she added.
BJP will not get over 200 seats in 2024 Lok Sabha elections
Taking on the BJP, Banerjee claimed that it will not be able to get more than 200 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. "BJP is in power, that is why they do whatever they want. But they don’t understand power is temporary, chair may come and go but democracy will continue forever. The Constitution will continue forever, there may be some amendments. But this constitution cannot be bulldozed. That’s why they (BJP) will not win the upcoming 2024 election. In 2024, BJP will not come to power. In 2021, in the Bengal elections, they said "200 paar" but in Delhi (2024 polls) they won't reach 200," said CM Banerjee.
Banerjee on Mukul Roy
The chief minister said that the state administration will look into the missing complaint filed by veteran politician Mukul Roy's son Subhrangshu about his father. Roy, who his family says is suffering from dementia and Parkinson's disease, surfaced dramatically in Delhi after the missing person complaint was filed, and claimed that he is a "BJP MP and MLA" and wants to meet Amit Shah.
"Mukul Roy is BJP's MLA, it's his affair if he wants to go to Delhi," Banerjee said. Roy had won the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections on a BJP ticket after defecting from TMC, but had later crossed back to the party he helped found complaining of ill-treatment at the hands of the saffron party's leadership.
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(With agencies input)
