'Modi did not get single largest majority, he should resign': Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata/IBNS: Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday expressed her satisfaction with the Bharatiya Janata Party not getting a single majority in the Lok Sabha and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as well as Union Home Minister Amit Shah, should resign on moral grounds.
“Modi did not get the single largest majority, he should resign, and so should Amit Shah on moral grounds after today’s results,” Mamata said in an address to the media after her Trinamool Congress won 29 of the 42 seats in the crucial state of West Bengal.
“Now they have to beg the Telugu Desam party and Nitish Kumar to form the government. I know them very well. They won’t break India.”
Even as PM Modi exuded confidence in winning hugely in Bengal this time, the party only managed to win 12 while Congress won one.
“India has won and Modi has lost. They have lost in Ayodhya too. His (Modi’s) margin has come down. Pride is not good for anyone. I want to bow my head before the people. This victory is people’s credit,” said Mamata.
She also lauded her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, considered the No.2 in the TMC, for winning the Diamond Harbour seat by over a 7-lakh margin.
Extending her support for the INDIA bloc, Mamata said: "I don’t want anything. The states should get the funds that are due to them. The projects that have been stalled should be started. Misuse of central agencies and the judiciary should be stopped,” she said.
"Now if they try to bulldoze laws INDIA will push back,” she said.
Over the last ten years, Mamata Banerjee and the Narendra Modi-led Centre have been at loggerheads over the disbursement of funds from the Centre and the court-monitored probes against a section of the Trinamool leaders over alleged corruption charges.
Mamata said she was happy the BJP did not get a single majority in the Lok Sabha despite committing so many excesses in the last ten years of Modi’s rule.
“They have committed maximum atrocities on us in the last ten years. CBI, ED, Income Tax, and BJP”s Home Ministry were unleashed against us. When I saw the exit poll results I asked myself am I losing confidence? I have been on the streets for two months. I did not see the exit polls reflected in the eyes of the people," Mamata said.
The Bengal chief minister said that she had congratulated leaders of the INDIA bloc partners like Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Akhilesh Yadav and had also sent a congratulatory message to Rahul Gandhi.
However, Mamata did not spare the state Congress and accused it of spoiling the Trinamool’s apple cart in some of the seats.
"We lost four to five seats due to Congress. I am not blaming the Delhi Congress leaders, but I don’t believe they gave money to the Calcutta North candidate. BJP supplied money to them. The Berhampore Congress candidate was working for the BJP,” she said without naming state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and Calcutta North nominee Pradeep Bhattacharya.
She reiterated that the CPM and the Congress in Bengal had the support of the BJP.
Mamata also alleged that the observers appointed by the BJP were playing a dirty game. “In Contai, our candidate has won but the observer gave the seat to the BJP. We have asked for recounting,” Mamata said.