“My Priority Is Relief…’’: Mamata Banerjee To Skip INDIA Bloc Meeting On June 1

“Narendra Modi isn’t coming back to power”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted confidence and claimed that the INDIA alliance has already called a meeting on June 1 to plan the next course of action. The Trinamool Congress Supremo, however, would skip the meeting, if it happens, due to the last phase of elections where 9 seats will go to polling including Kolkata, the state capital. Several districts of the state have been badly hit by severe cyclone Remal on Sunday, claiming at least four lives. Mamata Banerjee claimed, her priority for now was the relief and rescue work and thus the June 1 meeting would be difficult for her to attend.

“INDIA meeting has already been called. But I told them I can’t attend it on June 1. We have elections here in 10 seats (including one assembly by-election). That day there is polling in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. So June 1 wasn’t possible. The state is also reeling with the aftermath of severe cyclone Remal. We are undertaking the rescue work. Attending to there people in need is my priority. Even though I am attending this public meeting, my heart is with the victims”, said Mamata Banerjee during a public meeting in Kolkata one Monday.

According to Congress sources the meeting was called on June 1, soon after the seventh phase of polling would be over, so that the alliance could decide on their strategy. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is also part of the alliance and if the meeting doesn’t happen on June 1 then for Kejriwal it will be tough to attend later, as he has to surrender before the jail authorities on June 2, as per the Supreme Court order which granting him interim bail. The final confirmation about the meeting is still awaited.

The 28-member Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) was formed in July last year, name of the alliance was given by Mamata Banerjee. Even though the alliance didn’t happen in Bengal but Mamata Banerjee has maintained her support for the alliance in formation of the government at the centre. At the Burrabazar public meeting, she also alleged that Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has invested money into the stock market to revive it and then recover their own investments, before being routed out of power. “ I have credible information that BJP is investing in stocks so that the market can be revived. The market has collapsed, everyone knows that BJP isn’t coming to power. But BJP is trying to create the impression that they will be back and in that pretext, they are first investing into the market so that the bubble stays”, she added.