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Trinamool-Congress
kicks off poll campaign in Bengal
Sabyasachi
Bandopadhyay & Harish Gupta
New Delhi/Kolkata,
April 15: THE BATTLE royale for Writers’ Building, the
seat of the West Bengal government, began today with the Trinamool
Congress-Congress, the principal threat to the ruling Left Front,
hitting campaign trail at Shyambazar in north Kolkata.
All key leaders
of both parties, including Trinamool’s Mamata Banerjee, Sudip
Bandopadhyay, Subrata Mukherjee, Pankaj Banerjee, and Congress’
Pranab Mukherjee, Priyaranjan Das Munshi and Somen Mitra addressed
the crowded rally called by Mamata’s Save Bengal Front.
Both parties have also decided to jointly campaign in Bengal Chief
Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s constituency. AICC general-secretary
Kamal Nath had said on Saturday that party chief Sonia Gandhi will
campaign for three to four days in Bengal, beginning April-end.
Bengali film star Tapas Pal, contesting on a Trinamool ticket, too
addressed the rally.
‘‘CPI(M) leaders such as Jyoti Basu and H.K.S. Surjeet
tried their best to sabotage the formation of the alliance,’’
Mamata told the rally. ‘‘They wanted to control the Congress
but I must thank Soniaji she did not pay heed to them.”
In her 30-minute speech, Mamata, projected as the leader of the
alliance by all speakers, fired salvos at the CPI(M) saying the
party could not do for people in its 24-year-rule what she did during
her 17 months as a Union minister.
Accusing the CPI(M) of corruption, she said if she came to power,
she would order a probe into all corruption cases. ‘‘The
Marxists are hatching a conspiracy to create trouble in Kolkata
and rural areas so that people could not cast their votes in peace.
We will have to guard against this,’’ she warned.
Dasmunshi too rapped the CPI(M) for making an about-turn on the
party after the alliance. ‘‘When there was no alliance
Congress was progressive, but now they are saying we are reactionary,’’
he charged.
‘‘They once sided with the BJP to dislodge the Congress
governmewnt. How can they talk of principles,’’ he said.
But neither Mamata nor any of the Congress leaders criticised the
BJP. All leaders gave a call to the people to fight under Mamata’s
leadership to oust the CPI(M).
Somen Mitra said the alliance would sound the death knell of the
Left Front government. ‘‘We will give our unhindered support
to Mamata in her fight to oust the Marxists from power,’’
he said
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