Mamata Banerjee sees high turnout as rout for Left

Haroa (WB), April 19: Buoyed by the high 83.75 per cent turnout in North Bengal in the first phase of Assembly elections, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today (April 19) claimed that the CPI(M) would would be routed there.

"CPI(M) is going to be ousted from power in West Bengal this time. The Left Front will not even get ten of the 54 seats in North Bengal," Banerjee told an election rally in North 24 Parganas district adjoining Kolkata.

The 54 seats, where polling was held on Monday, April 19represent less than a fifth of the 294 seats in the Legislative Assembly.

"People want change from Marxist misrule. The Trinamool begins its victory lap from North Bengal where we were not that strong till the other day," she said.

While the Trinamool Congress holds sway in South Bengal where it had won 19 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 42 seats in 2009, it was trying to make inroads in North Bengal.

Eyeing to retain the minority votebank, which has veered towards the party since the 2008 panchayat polls and is being desperately wooed by the Left ever since, Banerjee said, "If we come to power, we will implement the Sachar Committee report on minority development in the state and invite Justice Sachar to West Bengal and take his suggestions for improvement of the lot of Muslims."

Alleging a BJP-CPI(M) nexus to split TC-Congress votes, she said, "With BJP failing to cut ice among voters, it has taken the help of the RSS.

"Its (RSS) cadres are urging voters at Deganga not to cast their votes in favour of Mamata Banerjee. Am I not a Hindu woman? Hindus are my brothers. I am strongly for Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and amity and against any attempt to create division among them," she said.

Slamming the Left Front government for allegedly failing to solve the ''alarming'' unemployment problem, Banerjee promised jobs and industrialisation in the state.

"If elected to power we will create ten lakh new jobs as pledged in the Trinamool Congress election manifesto," she said.

"Let our new slogan be change, and not revenge. We want everyone to get education and work. We will bring a new dawn. Let us build a new Bengal," she said.

PTI