'Mamata only ideal candidate for PM'

Kolkata, Jan 30: Author Mahasweta Devi expressed support for

Chief Minister

and said here Thursday that she "is the only ideal candidate for prime minister".

Addressing a large Trinamool Congress rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds, Devi hailed the party supremo Banerjee's efforts for the welfare of the common people.

"I would like to see her as the next prime minister ... she is the only ideal candidate for prime minister," she said.

Banerjee govt did far better work than what the erstwhile Left govt managed

"To build a 'golden Bengal', her considerate thoughts and actions have shown the way to India's citizens," she said.

The author said the Banerjee government did far better work than what the erstwhile Left government managed in its over three decades of rule in the state.

The Magsaysay award winner stressed that people's faith in the chief minister is "increasing day by day".

"This is only because of her unselfish attitude and her work for the people that she has been doing selflessly" said Devi, adding the rally had witnessed more people than the 1972 rally addressed by then prime minister Indira Gandhi and Bangladeshi statesman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the same venue.

She heaped adulations on Banerjee for listening to the down-trodden, the helpless and the poor.

"Her work in Junglemahal (Maoist affected areas of the state) and in the Darjeeling hills has been incomparable," Devi said.

IANS