TMC will not support Modi: Mamata
Rampurhat (WB), July 20: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said her party would never support BJP leader Narendra Modi.
"We do not support Narendra Modi, nor will we support him (in future)," she told a panchayat election rally at Rampurhat in Birbhum district. Hitting out at Congress-led UPA, Banerjee said, "UPA have been ruling for 10 years but during this time they did not mention anything about Narendra Modi.
Now
when
the
election
time
is
round-the-corner,
they
are
attacking
him...Congress
and
BJP
are
engaged
in
a
game
of
compromise."
The
Trinamool
leader,
who
had
yesterday
described
BJP
and
Congress
as
the
two
faces
of
the
the
same
coin,
alleged
CPI(M)
has
also
played
"such
game
(of
compromise)"
to
reap
votes.
She alleged CPI(M) had "used Gujarat riot victim Qutubuddin Ansari by bringing him to Kolkata to derive political benefits, only to dump him later". Highlighting the schemes initiated for uplift of Muslims in the state, Banerjee said her government has increased allocation for the minorities department by 73 per cent in the state budget for the current financial year.
Muslims comprise 26 per cent of the electorate of West Bengal. The shifting of minority votes from Left Front in favour of Trinamool Congress is one of the reasons for the electoral reverses suffered by the Left in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal as well as in the state assembly polls, which saw the Trinamool Congress score a landslide victory.
Banerjee also criticised the central government's decision to hike FDI limits in a host of areas including telecom, insurance and defence. "By increasing FDI in defence, we are compromising safety and security of the nation," she said.
PTI