Mamata card' matters in Bengal, not Modi's 'Ram card': Trinamool Congress

Kolkata, Feb 14: Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Sunday said that the ''Janata card'' and the ''Mamata card'' are what matter in West Bengal and not the ''Ram card'' which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has talked about.

Chatterjee, a senior minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet, claimed that BJP leaders are losing ground in the face of welfare measures taken by the TMC government, and that they are now indulging in rhetoric which will not have any impact on the electorate.

"The prime minister has talked of ''Ram card'', but in West Bengal, only the ''Janata card'' of development and the ''Mamata card'' matter," he told a press conference at the TMC headquarters in Kolkata.

Addressing a public meeting at Haldia in poll-bound West Bengal a week ago, Modi had said that the TMC government has committed several fouls in the last 10 years and time has come to show it the ''Ram card'' in the assembly elections due in April-May.

Chatterjee claimed that while other states have received relief from the BJP-led central government following natural disasters, West Bengal has not got any assistance from it for the devastation caused by cyclone Amphan last year.

"Bengal is being ignored and punished, people will give them a befitting reply," said Chatterjee who is the state''s parliamentary affairs and school and higher education minister.

The senior TMC leader said that the way petrol and diesel prices are increasing, these are likely to soon cross the Rs 100 mark.

"People are being pushed to a corner owing to increase in prices of food and other essential items because of the hike in the prices of petrol and diesel," he said.

Claiming that the ''Duare Sarkar'' (government at doorsteps) programme of the Mamata Banerjee government is a huge success, he said that nearly 25 lakh people have applied for caste certificate under it and verification process of all these have been completed.

Launched on December 1 last year, ''Duare Sarkar'' is an initiative of the state government for delivery of some of its specific schemes at the doorstep of people through camps organised at the levels of gram panchayat and municipal ward.

He said that the chief minister launched the ''Duare Sarkar'' programme after holding 500 administrative meetings where issues affecting people were discussed, and 2.75 crore people visited over 25,000 camps across the state.

Meanwhile, two leaders of the state BJPs Scheduled Cast Morcha joined the TMC saying that they want to be a part of the development agenda of Mamata Banerjee.

Chatterjee handed over the TMC flag to Dipak Kumar Roy and Subrata Roy, a vice president and a member of the Morcha respectively.