Trinamool’s Martyrs’ Day: Mamata Banerjee’s appeal to Opposition to build strong front, take on BJP well ahead of 2024

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday addressed her party’s Martyrs’ Day programme virtually, appealing to Opposition leaders across the country to build a strong front to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2024. Several Opposition leaders were listening to her address from Delhi and other parts of the country.

Banerjee called for a national level front to be formed by the Opposition, saying: “a patient, if dead, cannot be revived. So whatever is to be done, must be done as long as the patient is alive.” She said that “people will not forgive us” if we do not form a firm Opposition and save the country. She indicated that this is to be done well ahead of the Lok Sabha polls 2024.

The Trinamool Congress has been pitching the programme today as a national event, bringing together important Opposition leaders. Banerjee will be in Delhi later this week, and said a meeting of Opposition leaders needs to be organised during her visit so that a dialogue can be held. “The more we delay this, the worse the situation of people will be,” she said.

She said that a political movement is required in every state to protest the alleged phone tapping through Pegasus. Banerjee said that phones of her poll strategist Prashant Kishor was targeted and so was the phone of her party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. “I am unable to speak with senior leaders of various parties as my phone is tapped,” she said. Mamata Banerjee added that the Central government was not spending money for the poor, but using resources to spy on people, including Opposition leaders. “The price of essential commodities are rising meanwhile, but they (the senior BJP leaders) are not bothered,” Banerjee said.

She said that she was grateful that people across the country were looking towards Bengal and the election results of the Assembly election indicated that it was possible to defeat the BJP. The same is applicable across the country, she said.

Banerjee said that the BJP-led government at the Centre was a monumental failure in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, and the situation in Uttar Pradesh reflected this glaring failure. “And yet, the Prime Minister has said that UP has performed well in handling COVID. All the while, bodies of the deceased were not cremated but thrown into the river,” Banerjee said.