Kolkata:

In her new book, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has squarely blamed Congress for the BJP’s return to power at the Centre for the third consecutive term in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

A total of three new books penned by the Chief Minister were released on the first day of the Kolkata International Book Fair on Tuesday afternoon and one of the three books titled ‘Banglar Nirbachon o Amra (Bengal elections and us)’, she has made an analysis of the results of the 2024 general elections.

As per her observations in the book, despite wholehearted attempts by the Trinamool Congress, the opposition INDIA bloc was unable to gain electoral success because of the failure on the part of Congress.

“We earnestly wanted a strong opposition bloc against BJP at the national level combining all anti-BJP forces. Since the beginning, we had insisted on a common minimum programme and common manifesto. The name of the opposition bloc too was my proposal. Congress was offered the chair of the leader of the national bloc. But despite that, there was neither a common minimum programme nor any common manifesto. The bloc constituents contested between themselves. This helped BJP to regain power even without gaining a majority,” Chief Minister wrote in her book.

She has also claimed in the book that the number of seats that Congress had won in the last Lok Sabha elections was because of the backing of the other allies in the INDIA bloc.

On the West Bengal-specific election aspect, the Chief Minister had claimed that although in the state Congress had a seat-sharing arrangement with CPI(M)-led Left Front, in reality, it was a bigger anti-Trinamool Congress arrangement with clandestine understanding with BJP.

According to her, the Trinamool Congress’ electoral success in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls was because of the spontaneous public support inspired by the different developmental activities undertaken by her government.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress improved its tally to 29 from 22 in 2019. On the other hand, BJP’s tally declined to 12 from 18 in 2019. Congress managed to win from one seat, while CPI(M)-led Left Front ended with zero.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jhargram (WB):

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Thursday claimed that if the BJP returns to power at the Centre, the government would hike the price of cooking gas cylinder to Rs 2,000.

The chief minister was addressing a gathering at a government programme here in Jhargram district.

“If the BJP wins the elections, they may hike the price of a cooking gas cylinder to Rs 1,500 or Rs 2,000. Then again, we will have to go back to the old practice of collecting wood to light a fire,” Ms Banerjee said.

She also gave an ultimatum to the BJP-led central government to complete building houses under the Awas Yojana by April-end, claiming that otherwise her government would start constructing them from May.

On Tuesday, Ms Banerjee had set a deadline of April 1 for the central government to complete building houses for the beneficiaries or else her government would build around 11 lakh houses for them.

Referring to her government paying MGNREGA workers their due wages which were allegedly not paid by the BJP-led central government, Ms Banerjee said, “I asked one youth whether he got the money for the 100 days’ work scheme. He said he got around Rs 30,000. This was the amount that the central government had not paid people like him for the last two years. We have paid 59 lakh people their dues.”

The Trinamool Congress supremo, however, remained silent on the arrest of party leader Shajahan Sheikh, accused of sexual atrocities on women and land grab in Sandeshkhali area in North 24 Parganas district. Sheikh was arrested early on Thursday. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)