ELECTION

Mamata Banerjee, Pranab Mukherjee in Cooch Behar

COOCH BEHAR, April 19: Trinamul Congress supremo Miss Mamata Banerjee came down heavily on the CPI-M led Left Front during her electioneering in Cooch Behar. Today, she addressed a large gathering organised jointly by the Trinamul Congress and the Congress at Raas Mela Maidan in Cooch Behar. She came here to campaign in favour of the Trinamul Congress candidate Mr Arghya Roy Pradhan.

Miss Banerjee alleged that the Left Front did nothing in north Bengal in its regime of 32 years. There is vast opportunity to work for development of the region. She hoped that the PTTI issue might be solved very soon.

The Trinamul leader declared that they would not allow Bengal to be divided any more. The secessionist forces like KLO and Greater Cooch Behar movement are conspiracies hatched by the CPI-M as it did prior to previous elections. The Forward Bloc is also acting as a tail of the CPI-M leaving its glorious past and ignoring the memories of the martyrs, she said.

Miss Banerjee alleged that a massive amount of money is being poured in this state to push back the Trinamul Congress, but "they will not be able to defeat our morale". The CPI-M handed over Darjeeling to the BJP, she added.

Union minister and state Congress president Mr Pranab Mukherjee claimed that there was no difference between the Congress and the Trinamul Congress. "We are fighting jointly and Mamata's speech is my speech", he said. The people wanted the alliance and so the two parties entered into the alliance, he said. It is no rainbow alliance, he claimed.

West Bengal is going backward in all sectors under Left Front rule. The Left Front failed to arrange jobs for even 37 days in 100 days for the jobless people. The common people would set the things on the right track by defeating the Left Front candidates, he hoped. Mr Mukherjee predicted that the Left Front might not be able to retain most of its seats in this state. It will never get the required 272 seats to form a government at the Centre, he said.

The senior Congress leader said Gorkhaland is no more an issue of the West Bengal alone. Every effort would be taken to stop the division of Bengal, he said.