Our alliance will be with people: Mamata Banerjee deals blow

In a blow to hopes of a grand Opposition alliance against the BJP at the Centre, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee has vowed to go it alone in next year’s Lok Sabha elections. Speaking to reporters after the ruling TMC lost the Sagardighi bypoll in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, to the Congress on Thursday, Mamata said the result exposed the “unholy alliance” of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the CPI(M), adding that her party could and will fight all three rival political forces alone. She also accused the three parties of playing the “communal card”. “If the Congress and the CPI(M) fight Mamata Banerjee with the help of the BJP, how can they call themselves anti-BJP? All of them have been playing the communal card (to polarise voters). This is very unfortunate. This (defeat in Sagardighi) is a lesson for us, that we should no longer trust Congress or the CPI(M). We cannot go with parties that are with the BJP. Our alliance will be with the people. They (Congress) may have won the election but it is a moral defeat for them,” the TMC chief said. Further, weighing in on the TMC’s loss in the Sagardighi bypoll, Banerjee said, “Of course, we lost the bypoll. I don’t blame anyone. In elections, there are victories and defeats. But it is this immoral alliance between the other political parties that we strongly condemn. As part of this unholy alliance, all CPI(M) and BJP votes went to Congress. I want to ask these parties, why are you going into such alliances covertly?” Left-backed Congress candidate Bayron Biswas won the Sagardighi bypolls, troucing the TMC’s Debashish Banerjee by a whopping 22,986 votes. Speaking on the TMC faring poorly in the Meghalaya election, the Bengal CM said, “There was some confusion in Meghalaya. Voters thought that I was also with Congress as both parties have the word ‘Congress’ in common.