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Addressing mediapersons here today, Banerjee said that the preliminary panchayat elections results are a signal for a change in the state and the people have taught the CPM a lesson.
Citing the clean sweep made by her party in Nandigram and Singur, she said that the results are a referendum against Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s controversial industrialisation and land acquisition policy.
“The people of Bengal want a change. This is a mandate against the CPM’s reign of terror and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s industrialisation policy of forcible land acquisition from farmers. We will stop such industrialisation process,” Banerjee said.
Making a difference between the CPM and the other Left Front partners, she said, “We are not against the Leftists but against the CPM. Not all Left partners are bad. Some of them do not support CPM’s act of unleashing terror. I ask them (the Left Front partners) to join hands with us for the development of Bengal.” She also urged them to support the party in forming Zilla Parishad boards and claimed that her party would form the upper tier boards in East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas districts.
“In the last elections we won just 15 Zilla Parishad seats. This time, till now, we have got 128 and are ahead of the CPM in more than 40 seats,” she added.
She, however, complained that the elections were not completely free and fair in all the districts, as in most places her party was not allowed to field candidates. “In West Midnapore, Hooghly, Bankura, Burdwan we could not field candidates, let alone campaign. In Nandigram, CPM cadres captured booths and attacked voters, including in Satengabari, Takapura, Ranichowk, Sonachura and other places. Or else we would have swept the polls,” she said.
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