West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday declared the Trinamool Congress would return to power for a third straight term in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Speaking at a virtual rally to mark Martyrs' Day, a key event in the calendar of the Trinamool Congress, Mamata tore into the BJP, which has emerged as the chief rival of her party in the state.
Mamata was quoted by news agency ANI as saying, "We will throw the BJP out of West Bengal in the 2021 Assembly elections. Trinamool Congress will form the government again. The next elections will show a new direction to the state as well as to the country."
"A conspiracy is being hatched by the Union government to destabilise the elected government of Bengal by using Central agencies and money power. The BJP is the most destructive party the country has ever seen. When the country is busy fighting the COVID pandemic, the BJP is busy destabilising the elected governments in Rajasthan and West Bengal after Madhya Pradesh," Mamata said.
"Why should Gujarat rule all states? What's the need for a federal structure? Create ‘one nation-one party system’ then," Mamata said, as she mounted a scathing attack on the Centre over the political turmoil in Rajasthan while referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Gujarati origin.
Mamata Banerjee also brought up a 'constant' complaint she has raised previously: Of the Centre neglecting West Bengal. She also referred to the BJP as being a party of "outsiders". Mamata said, "The Central government has neglected us. People of West Bengal will give them a befitting reply. Outsiders will not run the state. There are some people who don't have any political experience. They speak of killing people and setting things ablaze.”
"People of Bengal will rule the state and not outsiders and people from Gujarat. We should strive to ensure that security deposits of all the BJP candidates are forfeited," she said.
Attacking the BJP for criticising her government over political violence, Mamata referred to the recent killing of eight policemen in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Mamata said, “What about UP where ‘jungle raj’ prevails? What is happening in Uttar Pradesh? People in that state are afraid of lodging complaints with the police. Several policemen were killed in a single incident."
She accused the BJP of perpetuating a reign of "fear" across the country, "where people were unable to speak".
The July 21 'Martyrs Day' rally is observed annually by the Trinamool Congress to commemorate the killing of 13 people in police firing in 1993, when Mamata Banerjee, then a Youth Congress leader, had launched a march to the secretariat in Kolkata, demanding that voters' ID card be made the only document to allow people to exercise their franchise.
This year's Martyrs' Day rally has been touted as being the platform to set the tone for next year's Assembly polls.