Mamata takes on Himanta Biswa Sarma: ‘Why should de facto PM from Guwahati run North East?”
Kicking off TMC's campaign in poll-bound Meghalaya, West Bengal CM says NPP-BJP state administration a “proxy government controlled from Delhi and Guwahati”.
The TMC supremo addressed a large meeting in the North Garo Hills on Wednesday. (Express photo by Partha Paul.) Sounding the Trinamool Congress’s (TMC) poll bugle for the coming Meghalaya polls, party chief Mamata Banerjee hit out at the NPP-BJP government in the state as a “proxy government controlled from Delhi and Guwahati”.
On a one-day visit to Meghalaya, the TMC supremo addressed a large meeting in the North Garo Hills on Wednesday. The TMC — which overnight became the primary Opposition party in Meghalaya when 12 Congress MLAs led by former Chief Minister Mukul Sangma crossed over to it in November 2021 — is aggressively looking for its first taste of victory in polls in the state. Although it had eight candidates in the 2018 Assembly elections, it had drawn a blank.
Taking a jibe at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Banerjee said, “I know North Eastern region very well… But you tell me, why should there be a de facto prime minister from Guwahati and he will run all the North Eastern region?”
“Empower the people, uphold the culture and celebrate the sacred land of Meghalaya and remove the proxy BJP government. It is a proxy BJP government, a corrupt government, not yet done anything for the people,” she said.
“The central government doesn’t give us (West Bengal) money, they give money to their own state but where is this money? Why after so many years, electricity has not reached?.. BJP has enough money because they have collected all the money. Sometimes they use the agencies also. They will try to create some panic also. Don’t divide yourself. Be united and take a stand,” she said.
Positing that the TMC is the “only alternative” in the state, Banerjee narrated a list of free services she said the party has delivered in West Bengal.
“Nowadays if there is any flood, we help from the government. If there is any accident, we give help from the government. If there is any death, we give money to the family… We give all the farmers Rs 10,000 every year, just free. We give free ration to all the people… Out of 10 crore people, 9.5 crore people are getting free ration. It is even reaching their house. We give all full free treatment.
Sometimes, you also go to Kolkata for treatment. If you go to Delhi, how costly it is. If you go to Assam, how costly it is. But come to Kolkata, we give free treatment. We gave 60,000 children free heart operations. So many mothers died when they gave birth. We have a milk bank for them.”
The TMC is pushing hard to gain an electoral foothold in the Garo Hills, which has 24 Assembly seats and where Mukul Sangma is an influential figure.
While Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s constituency South Tura is also in the Garo Hills, TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee claimed that he believes the NPP and the BJP will draw a blank in the region.
“The death knell of the NPP and the corrupt MDA [Meghalaya Democratic Alliance] is going to be sounded from this very moment… Two months ago I had come here and said that when people go to cast their votes, the BJP and the NPP will draw a blank from Garo Hills. Mark my words, I say this on the record looking at the love, the appreciation and enthusiasm,” he said.
Also attacking the Congress, he said, “Everyone on this stage hailed from Congress but we all realized that if you want to take on BJP and NPP, Congress is not the right platform, the TMC is the right platform. So every vote to the Congress is eventually a vote to the BJP. You saw what happened to Goa, in other states such as Madhya Pradesh.”
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