Mamata Banerjee: I am not BJP’s servant to answer their leaders’ queries

With relations turning from bad to worse between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and BJP president Amit Shah, the TMC chief has made it clear that ‘she is not the servant of BJP to reply any of their statements’ in the national capital on Wednesday. The TMC supremo was reacting to a question on her comment of ‘civil war’, on the ongoing debate of National Registrar of Citizens’ (NCR) draft.

Speaking to the media, after meeting the Congress president Rahul Gandhi and senior leader Sonia Gandhi, Banerjee said that her words are being misquoted by the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders for reaping political benefit in Assam and West Bengal. The West Bengal Chief Minister added that she is just concerned about the fate of 40.07 lakh people excluded from the list.

Accusing the BJP of polarising the NRC issue for 2019 General Elections, Mamata said, “I am not BJP’s servant to reply to any of their statements. I didn’t say this (civil war remark), my concern is regarding the 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list (NRC). BJP is politically tensed because they know they won’t come to power in 2019.”

The TMC leader said, “Assam is the border of our Bengal. It will affect us also. It is our neighbour, will we not raise our voice if our neighbor is unhappy?”

Asked about the details of her meeting with the Gandhis, Mamata said, “We discussed current politics and the possibility of all of us contesting elections together in future. We also discussed the NRC issue.” Though she refrained from divulging full details, she looked confident of a possible coalition with the grand old party ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Earlier in the day, she also met senior leaders from BJP which included Lal Krishna Advani. Quizzed on what conversation they had she smiled and said, “I know Advani Ji for a long time. I met him and asked him about his health today.” The West Bengal Chief Minister also met leaders like and Shatrughan Sinha and Yashwant Sinha. Sharing the minutes, she stated, “I have urged Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha as well to send a team to Assam to check the reality of National Register of Citizens (NRC).”

Mamata Banerjee also met political leaders including Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, Congress leader Ahmed Patel, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan, JD (S) leader HD Deve Gowda and will soon meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.