Kolkata: West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress will spread to every nook and corner of the country, the party’s National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee said here on Thursday.
“I pledge that I will ensure the party reaches every nook and corner of the country,” Banerjee said addressing the party’s annual Martyrs’ Day rally at the Dharamtala area in the city hub.
The Lok Sabha member from Diamond Harbour constituency said the Trinamool Congress has already entered various states like Tripura, Assam, and Goa.
Banerjee said the turnout at this year’s rally has broken all previous records, and even the inclement weather failed to dampen the spirit of those attending the event.
Veteran party MP Sougata Roy said the Trinamool would now fight to oust the BJP from power in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
Speaking about the plans for the general elections scheduled to be held less than two years from now, he said, “We defeated the BJP in the 2021 Assembly polls in West Bengal. But the fight has not ended. We have to oust the BJP from the Centre in 2024”
Ridiculing the BJP, Roy said the saffron party had claimed it would win over 200 seats in the 2021 polls but failed to even cross the 100-seat mark.
“We have won the state elections last year, but the real fight is for Delhi,” Roy added.
Bollywood actor-cum-senior TMC leader Shatrughan Sinha described Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a tigress and said she was the strongest political leader in the country now.
“People have turned up in this rally for the tigress of Bengal who has taken Bengal to new heights.”
Sinha said Banerjee is a role model for the country. Despite being in a wheelchair, she defeated the force and might of the BJP last year.
“It is without a doubt that there is no one stronger than her in the field of politics in today’s India. She has fought for the people of Bengal and ensured victory alongside development,” he said.
State Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee said: “Mamata will lay out the roadmap for the party and the young generation”.
Senior TMC leader and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim raised the slogan Bhag BJP, bhag (Go BJP, go)”, in an echo of a similar slogan uttered by Bharatiya Janata Party targeting top Trinamool leaders in a Kolkata rally several years back.
“Our fight is not over. The state polls were not the end. The time has come that the BJP is ousted from power,” said Hakim.
He said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has shown what development looks like. All that the BJP has done is try to divide the people of the state. If one wants to see inclusivity and development, one should come to Bengal.
TMC observes Martyrs’ Day on July 21 every year to commemorate the killing of 13 people in police firing on a Youth Congress rally against the then Left Front government on this day in 1993 when Banerjee was the YC state president.
