All eyes are on West Bengal in the Lok Sabha elections. After Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, West Bengal is the largest state with 42 seats. Lok Sabha elections will be held here in seven phases. Here the ruling Trinamool Congress party is contesting the elections on its own. Abhishek Banerjee is a young and powerful leader of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. Abhishek Banerjee is also MP from Diamond Harbor Lok Sabha seat for two consecutive terms. He has done BBA and MBA. Abhishek encourages sports, due to which he is very popular among the youth. He is also called the pole of Bengal politics.
While talking to News 18 India, he cornered Congress on many issues. He also held Congress responsible for the seat distribution in West Bengal. Abhishek claimed that TMC will emerge as a more powerful party in this election as compared to the last election. Here are selected excerpts from the conversation:
There are 42 seats in West Bengal. BJP has given its entire life to hoist its flag here. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is continuously visiting Bengal. On BJP’s claim of winning 25 seats, he said that he thought BJP’s target was 35 seats. Home Minister Amit Shah had talked about winning 35 seats, but as soon as the elections were announced, his target reduced to 25 seats. He said that I am not an astrologer, but I can definitely say that whatever target the BJP set, only half of it came to its share.
Abhishek Banerjee said that BJP leaders are coming to the state after 3 years of 2021 assembly elections in Bengal. No leader had come here before, which is not right.
Election News: TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee attacked Congress while talking to NEWS18 India.
On the situation of Trinamool in the elections, Abhishek said that the situation of TMC in the elections five years before today, whether it is regarding seats or vote sharing, the situation will be better in these elections. He said that in the last elections TMC had won 22 seats, this time this figure will be much higher.
You are being called the new commander of Trinamool Congress-TMC, on this he said that people will say something or the other, Didi gave me a chance to declare the names of all the candidates.
On the question of retirement age in politics, Abhishek Banerjee said that I have been saying about this earlier also. I feel that productivity decreases with age, today I am 36 years old, I will not be able to work for the same amount of time when I am 56 years old. But this does not apply to Mamata Banerjee ji. She is over 60 years old but still works 12 hours a day. Talking about the PM of the country, he is 72 and he still works 12-14 hours a day.
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On the question of protection being given to the accused in Sandeshkhali, he said that the two charges are land grabbing and exploitation of women. The three accused in this are Sheikh Shahjahan, Sheeb Prasad Hazra and Uttar Sardar. The High Court put a stay on the arrest of Sheikh Shahjahan. He said that CBI has detained only Sheikh Shahjahan, while not the other two accused.
On the question of large amount of cash being found in the houses of TMC leaders, he said that if money is found in the house of a TMC leader, hang him, but when BJP leaders themselves are caught in such cases, then why action is not taken against them. . He alleged that serious allegations were also made against Ajit Pawar, but now he is with BJP.
On the issue of CAA, Abhishek Banerjee said that Home Minister Amit Shah had said before 2019 that first CAA will come and then NRC will come. You will give citizenship in the name of CAA and citizenship will be taken in the name of NRC.
He said that if the Home Minister says that if NRC does not come after CAA, then we will support CAA.
Regarding seat sharing in the India alliance, he said that we have said many times that seat sharing should be discussed first. But Congress did not do this. He said that TMC had talked about the seat sharing formula with Congress, what would be the formula. Abhishek said that Congress has neither vote share nor MLA in West Bengal. There are only two Congress MPs here. The vote share is only three percent. If you ask for 10 Lok Sabha seats on 3-4 percent votes, how will this happen?
On the question of fielding cricketer Yusuf Pathan against Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary on Baharampur seat, he said that we are fighting to win every seat. Adhir Ranjan did not do any work in his area despite being an MP. We are contesting elections on issues.
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Tags: 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Kolkata News, Loksabha Election 2024, Loksabha Elections, Trinamool Congress
FIRST PUBLISHED: March 23, 2024, 19:16 IST