TMC's existence in crisis as BJP set to win Bengal assembly polls: Sovan Chatterjee

BJP leader Sovan Chatterjee onMonday said that the existence of the Trinamool Congress is incrisis as the saffron party is set to win the West Bengalassembly elections due in April-May.

Claiming that the TMC had turned the 2018 panchayatelections in the state into a farce, the former Kolkata mayorquestioned whether this is the 'Sonar Bangla' (Golden Bengal)that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is claiming to haveestablished.

''In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had pulledthe rug from under your feet and now your existence is incrisis as the saffron party is set to win this year's assemblyelections,'' he said, while addressing a public meeting insouth Kolkata's Selimpur area after leading a roadshow alongwith his friend Baisakhi Banerjee.

Chatterjee's first political programme in over threeyears had generated a lot of interest among common people,apart from BJP workers. He had a week earlier failed to turnup at a roadshow organised by the saffron party.

Instead of labelling those who have left the TMC as''traitors'', Mamata Banerjee should admit that the party haslost the confidence of the people of the state, Chatterjee, aformer confidante of the chief minister, said.

Chatterjee, who was a minister in Banerjee's cabinetand Kolkata mayor for eight-and-half-years, said, ''MamataBanerjee should know that I can throw away such ministershiplike a sandal.'' He alleged that Banerjee, who had come to power in2011 after defeating the Left Front, resorted to tactics thatensured that people could not vote in the 2018 panchayatelections, leading to uncontested victories for TMC candidatesin zilla parishads.

''Is this the Sonar Bangla that she is claiming to havemade?'' he said.

The BJP has been harping on the slogan of turning WestBengal into 'Sonar Bangla', promising to bring back thestate's old glory, while the TMC leadership has beencriticising it, claiming that the state is in peace andprospering under its government.

''She is now maligning the BJP, with which she had tiedup after the formation of the TMC in 1998,'' Chatterjee, whohad been with Mamata Banerjee since the formation of theparty, said.

A former trusted lieutenant of the TMC supremo,Chatterjee had gone on a sabbatical in 2018 followingdifferences with the party leadership before joining the BJPin August 2019, along with his friend Baisakhi Banerjee.

Accusing the TMC leadership of having a vengefulattitude towards his friend, he said that she had been removedfrom positions as the principal of a college and as afunctionary of a professors' organisation. He even accused theparty leadership of meddling in his personal matters.