Mamata kicks off campaign to capture Assembly

Mamata kicks off campaign to capture Assembly
SANTANU BANERJEE

CALCUTTA, JULY 21: Even before the actual battle is fought for control of the Assembly, the Trinamool Congress today completed the formal coronation of Mamata Banerjee as the next chief minister of West Bengal at an annual public meeting here this afternoon.

Attended by the party's senior leaders, state BJP president Ashim Ghosh and others, the annual rally to pay homage to 13 victims of police firing on 21st July, 1993, turned out to be a function where rituals of coronation were completed with all speakers hailing Mamata as the next chief minister.

A little overwhelmed by the huge gathering, Mamata kicked off the party's campaign for the next Assembly elections due next June. ``You gave them (the CPI(M)-led Left Front) 24 years, give us just four years and we will show you how to rebuild a shattered state,'' Mamata told the audience that roared back its support.

Taking over from party leaders on the dias, she clearly indicated that the battle would begin next month itself. ``From first week of August we'll start evolving our strategy for capturing Writers Building, (the seat of the state government) and will have a rally in the Brigade Parade Ground in November. This will be followed by a victory rally in Brigade in January 2001,'' she announced, implying perhaps that the election might be over by the January next year.

Mamata, flanked by party leaders and state BJP president Ashim Ghosh, state youth Congress leader Paresh Pall, threatened the CPI(M) that ``unless they stop an-eye-for-an-eye attitude in state tooth politics, we'll pay them back in same coin''.

The gathering, which brought traffic in the heart of the city to a virtual standstill and disturbed normal life in the area for about five hours, also seemed to have swelled the confidence of the Trinamool Congress. The gathering ignored the intermittent drizzle and inclement weather.

Though she minced no words about breaking the Left Front, Sudip Bandhopadhyaya, TMC's parliamentary leader, openly said that Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) minister Kishti Goswami, a partner of the LF that ``can join the Trinamool whenever he feels like it''.

Incidentally, Goswami hit the headlines again by chiding Deputy Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya over his statements on the Keshpur violence. Goswami advised both Bhattacharya and the CPI(M) to restrain party cardres in troubled Keshpur. And Bandhopadhyay's call is likely to deepen the embarrassment for the CPI(M).

The Trinamool's recent victories in the Panskura Lok Sabha by-election and the Calcutta Municipal Corporation were profusely recalled to tell the gathering that the journey on the road to victory had already begun.

``They may bloody the way, like they have done in Midnapore,'' said Union Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Panja, ``but we'll not bow to threats. The people are well prepared and they don't want food, they want weapons to fight the CPI(M) terror,'' Panja told the audience.

West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu today accused the Trinamool Congress of holding the rally without police permission. Speaking to reporters in the Assembly lobby, Basu said that as a Union Minister, Mamata Banerjee should have known that without police permission rally cannot be held. Later, in the day urging Basu to check ``the police files'' Mamata vehemently pooh-poohed the Chief Minister's allegation, saying: ``He should know facts before terming something illegal.''

Subrata Mukherjee, the newly-elected mayor of the city, also aired similar views during the meeting. However, when a senior police official was contacted at Lal Bazar, he told this reporter on the condition of anonymity: ``At least, we didn't get any formal application asking for permission.''

However, he said the Trinamool did intimate us about their wish to construct gates at certain points which we could not give our permission to.''