Announcing she would skip the INDIA bloc meeting scheduled to be held on June 1, Trinamool Congress Chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stressed that providing relief to the people of the state after the cyclone Remal is her foremost priority along with the seventh phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Banerjee said, “The INDIA team is holding a meeting on June 1. I have told them I can’t join as we have an election on 10 seats in West Bengal on the same day. Punjab, Bihar and UP also have elections on June 1. On one side is the cyclone, and on the other side, it is elections – I have to do everything. Cyclone relief is my priority right now.”
She said that her priority was to provide relief to the victims and take care of them.
“My priority is to take care of the victims, provide shelter to them and help them. I am speaking here but my focus is on the relief work. This is an emotive issue,” she added.
She further hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and alleged that being a Prime Minister of the country he was advertising at his public rallies which is setting a wrong precedent.
“Tomorrow PM Modi will conduct a rally in Kolkata. I don’t have any objection but PM will do a rally after advertising and use party symbol, is that correct? He can tell that he is doing it as BJP leader and not as Prime Minister. He said that he has given gas connections free of cost but is it true? Did he give Rs 15 lakh in every account? Did he bring back the black money? Even an ITI student is not getting a job,” she further added.
Earlier Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit had confirmed that the INDIA bloc has called for an all-party meeting on June 1, ahead of the declaration of Lok Sabha results on June 4.
West Bengal is voting in all the seven phases of the Lok Sabha polls with the last phase scheduled on Saturday. The counting of votes is on June 4.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)