Mamata to contest panchayat polls alone

Announcing that the stage is set for the Trinamool and the CPI(M) battle in the panchayat elections, she said, “We have tried our best to take all with us in our anti-CPI(M) movement in West Bengal.”

Apparently, angered over the State BJP’s refusal to accept her open invitation to join the Bangla Bachao Front, she however refused to admit that the threatened alliance is a major setback for her anti-CPI(M) campaign.

When asked if she was sure that the `collapse of talks’ between the allies is not sending wrong signals topeople, she said, “We trust the people have their own eyes and ears to come to a conclusion and see for themselves who went wrong.” She argued that people who have enough intelligence to understand which party “has the guts to take on the Marxists and their real friend,” would “strengthen our hand during the panchayat elections and it would give us an opportunity to see for ourselves who has the support of the people.”

Mamata, who has been reacting to reports that the State BJP is likely to send a detailed report to their central leadership, said: “Our conscience is clean and we always wanted to mobilize anti-CPI(M) forces and we included the State BJP in our scheme of things, but they refused to see reasons.” She said, “A political alliance can only survive if we have learnt to treat the partners as equals, but the State BJP leadership said we are a regional party. Therefore, they can always dictate terms for any adjustments. This we will not tolerate.”

Asked if this did not contradict herstand on support to the BJP-led government at the Centre, Mamata said, “So far Central BJP leaders did not make us feel so. After all, we are supporting the government because there was no alternative to the nation and we did not want the nation to experience bouts of political and economic instability.” She said that at the grassroot level both parties are working closely and are unaffected by petty politics.

Sikdar’s reaction

Reacting to Mamata Banerjee’s decision to go it alone in the panchayat election, State BJP president Tapan Sikdar said “it’s an unfortunate development. It will amount to breaking off ties that stood us in a good stead during the recent Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

Sikdar added he was confident that the pact, the outcome of people’s will in Bengal, would finally sail through the impasse.