Increasingly marginalised in the state as well as national politics, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee today offered everything she could come up with — from shayari to blood pledge, from Alfred Nobel to Indira Gandhi — to exhort people to support her in dislodging the Marxists from West Bengal. Observing Martyr’s Day in memory of 20 youths killed in police firing, the Trinamool leader let her oratory flow to impress not only George Fernandes, the NDA convenor who was present, but also the crowd that had gathered. ‘‘Raha gulshan to phul khilenge, rahi zindagi to phir milenge,’’ she roared, warning both the Congress and the CPI(M). The former for having organised a meeting during the day which, she felt, was aimed at sabotaging her Martyr’s Day programme and the latter for trying to use the administration to stop her meeting. She also urged the Trinamool Congress working committee to withdraw the suspension on Ajit Panja, paving the way for his return. Insiders say revocation of Panja’s suspension is to checkmate Sudip Bandopadhyay, another party MP who had been rubbing shoulders with the BJP leadership so much so that some time back he was nearly inducted into the Union Cabinet without Mamata’s knowledge. Mamata stalled that but in the process, her own entry into the Cabinet got postponed. Welcoming the decision to withdraw the suspension Panja, who returned from Delhi tonight, said: ‘‘All’s well that ends well.’’ ‘We must all fight unitedly against the Marxists,’’ he said, adding ‘‘Trinamool will have to live upto the expectations of the people. I hope Mamata will show the same mamata (sympathy) to others who had been suspended like Bani Sinha Roy and Kalyan Chakrabarty of the Trinamool Congress.’’ Addressing the crowd, Mamata said‘‘Think positive,’’ Mamata told the crowd. ‘‘Look at Alfred Nobel, who instituted the Nobel prize after there was an insertion about him in the death column of a newspaper. Look at Indira Gandhi, she had very few followers once she was out of power. But Indiraji bounced back to power,’’ she said and went onto add: ‘‘The wheels of fortune will turn and Trinamool will be back.’’ She claimed that there is a catch in the so-called ‘‘improved’’Left that one sees in Bengal now under Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. ‘‘We are witnessing improved corruption, improved hypocracy, improved inefficiency etc. The Marxists are simply looting the state and there has to be an end to it,’’ she said.
