Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who is on a two-day visit to Goa, ahead of the state assembly elections next year, hit out at the BJP and projected TMC as the “only alternative” to the saffron party. She also took potshots at the Congress and said “they are busy on Facebook and Twitter so I came. Delhi ‘dadagiri’ will not go on now.”
This is the second visit of the West Bengal chief minister in the coastal state in just two months.
Goa’s lone Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) member Churchill Alemao, and former state CM, joined the TMC on Monday.
On murmurs that there will be split votes, Banerjee said, “We are not here to divide the vote, but we are here to unite the anti-BJP vote. In TMC, there is no high command culture (here).”
Both Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and TMC have denied talks about them coming together for the Goa state polls. The AAP had said it is determined to provide an alternative to Goa and form a corruption-free government, the party’s desk in charge Atishi said.
The TMC, which announced that it will contest all 40 seats in Goa for the assembly polls, has tied up with the oldest regional outfit, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party.
TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who is accompanying Mamata in Goa, and is closely monitoring the political situation in the state, said the difference between the Congress and TMC is that the “Congress is a keyboard warrior and TMC a real warrior.”
Goa election is crucial for the TMC, which is aggressively pitching itself as an alternative to the BJP, and is also trying to make inroads into other parts of country other than the east and northeast.
Read all the Latest News, Breaking News and Coronavirus News here.