West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's tryst with Delhi to oppose the Narendra Modi government's demonetisation initiative has drawn sniggers from the opposition parties in her state. They ridiculed the Trinamool Congress chief for getting spurned by most parties, and dubbed her an "opportunist".
The Congress, Left Front partners CPI-M and RSP and the BJP minced no words while attacking the chief minister for her "flop show".
During her two-day trip to the national capital, Banerjee rallied to the Rashtrapati Bhavan along with the representatives of a few political parties including Aam Admi Party and Shiv Sena and sought President Pranab Mukherjee's intervention on the demonetisation issue. She also held a joint meeting with her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal at Azadpur Mandi, Delhi's biggest vegetable market.
State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury questioned why she has not taken action against her party leaders involved in the Saradha ponzi scam and the Narada sting operation scandal.
"The Trinamool supremo is trying to exploit the situation in her favour. However, there are plenty of allegations against her party men in West Bengal. During her regime, a plethora of chit-fund companies threw the lives of the common people into disarray. She hasn't taken any steps against them," Chowdhury told IANS.
Chowdhury said there was no way the Congress could go with her.
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"Congress is capable and competent enough to fight against the dictatorship of the central government," he said.
Left Front legislature party leader Sujon Chakraborty also took a dig at Banerjee for managing to draw only a handful of parties.
"Despite all out efforts to woo political parties, most of them spurned her. Who can go with someone whose hand is tainted with Saradha and Narada scams? Why isn't she taking action against party leaders involved in the scandals?
"The way most parties turned down her appeal, we feel bad. After all, she is our chief minister," Chakraborty said.
However, he claimed there was a "passive understanding" between Modi and Banerjee.
"It's a shadow fight between Mamata and Modi. Why is the Modi government not asking the CBI to take steps against the Trinamool leaders involved in the financial scams," Chakraborty asked.
He also scoffed at Banerjee holding the hand of the Shiv Sena.
Revolutionary Socialist Party state secretary Kshiti Goswami charged Banerjee with pursuing an "undemocratic path" in West Bengal and striving to make it "oppositionless".
"We did not accept her offer as during her reign she has always pursued undemocratic and opportunist ways herself. We do not believe her," Goswami told IANS.
"She has always tried to make West Bengal oppositionless and never consulted the Left Front on any issue relating to the state," he said.
"Though we oppose the central government's decision of demonitisation without a proper backup plan, our party doesn't agree with Trinamool's manner of protest," he added.
The BJP, on the other hand, alleged that Modi's fight against black money has hit the Mamata government "hard" and said her antics in Delhi would be futile.
"We can see that Trinamool is in big trouble as their leaders don't know what to do with the hoards of back money they got from the Saradha and Narada scams. The more Banerjee protests against demonetisation, the more will it be evident that she is in favour of black money." BJP national secretary Rahul Sinha told IANS.
He also dismissed as "insignificant the Mamata-Kejriwal meeting.
"Mamata's meeting with Kejriwal at a vegetable market in Delhi is largely insignificant as very few people there would recognise her. People in West Bengal would be least bothered about what AAP is saying," Sinha said.
--IANS
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