Mamata’s War Cry is All Against Modi, But Wants to be the First Among Equals

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee headlined the mega rally of opposition leaders at Kolkata’s massive Brigade Ground on Friday as she gave the war cry 'Delhi mein sarkar badal do' (change the government at the Centre) and asserted that the "expiry date" of the Narendra Modi government is over.

The Trinamool Congress supremo, the last to address the crowd of nearly five lakh supporters, positioned herself as the leader of the proposed alliance as she called the political heavyweights on the dias to give their short speeches, introducing each of them.

When her turn came, she promised to work together along with other opposition parties and said the thorny issue of who will be the prime minister will be decided after the polls. But while her words signalled cooperation, her demeanour on the grand stage betrayed the unmissable desire to lead.

Her speech, the longest of the day, made a mincemeat of the BJP government at the Centre and was punctuated with quotable quotes and slogans – be it the talk of “expiry date”, shouting slogans of “BJP Hatao” or the warning that this warning was the “beginning of the end”.

Definitely aware that the occasion could go down in political history, as has happened so often at Kolkata’s Brigade Ground, Banerjee’s message to the government was clear – the united opposition would win and your days are numbered.

It was quickly dismissed by the BJP as an “anti-Modi” stunt and also drew a prompt counter from the Prime Minister, who said he could only hear “bachao bachao bachao” from Kolkata.

Criticising the BJP, Banerjee said there is courtesy in politics, but BJP does not follow it. “Those who are not with BJP are called thieves."

She also claimed that the BJP does not give respect to many of its own senior leaders and people like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari are ignored in the saffron party. "Modi and his associates are now talking of collective leadership, but if BJP wins the Lok Sabha polls these leaders will be ignored again," she said.

Stressing on the need for a collective leadership, the Trinamool chief said the BJP had ushered in a “super emergency” in the last four years.

“You are after me, Mayawati ji, Akhilesh Yadav ji, Sonia Gandhi ji, Lalu Yadav ji… now tell me why we will not fight together against you? They sent Tejashwi Yadav’s father Lalu ji in jail… god only knows where they will go after the election results,” she said.

“People say Indira Gandhi’s emergency was dangerous, but I would like to say the entire country is passing through super emergency under BJP misrule. BJP is worse than Mussolini (Benito Mussolini) and Hitler (Adolf Hitler). They only believe in danga (riot) and hatred. They are lootera (robbers) party,” she added.

The speech was beamed on 20 giant screens to a sea of spectators waving the tricolour and the banners of all the opposition parties. Police said 5,000 officers were on standby for security.

Several opposition leaders from 23 parties had gathered to prepare a roadmap for a coalition against the ruling BJP. Former PM H D Deve Gowda, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Shatrughan Sinha and Arun Shourie were among those on the dias.

Three present CMs - Arvind Kejriwal, Chandrababu Naidu and H D Kumaraswamy - and former chief ministers Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Akhilesh Yadav and Gegong Apang also addressed the meeting.

The Congress was represented by Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi after Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi decided to skip the meeting. “There should be one united opposition candidate against the BJP to wipe them out,” said Yashwant Sinha. The Congress, too, batted for a pre-poll consensus, saying there should be no division of votes.