BJP will be defeated across India in 2024 Lok Sabha polls: Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asserted that the Trinamool Congress wants to see the BJP defeated across the country in the next Lok Sabha polls due in 2024, and claimed that the saffron party would face similar drubbing that it had tasted in the last assembly polls in the state.

While addressing a rally for the December 19 Kolkata Municipal election (KMC) at Phoolbagan area in the city, Banerjee said her sole aim after returning to power for the third consecutive term in the state is to bring industry and generate jobs.

"During the assembly polls, we have seen the campaign that the BJP had unleashed in the state. Everybody was afraid of it. But the people of the state defeated them. What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. We will defeat the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It will meet the same fate as it had faced in the last assembly polls," she said.

The rally is Banerjee's first public function after her return from Goa on Tuesday, where she had gone on a two-day political visit.

"I want to see the BJP lose across the country in the 2024 elections. It will be Khela Hobey (there will be a game) again," she said
The "Kela Hobe" slogan of the TMC had become immensely popular during the high-octane campaigning of the assembly election held earlier this year.

The ruling camp of West Bengal is trying to expand its footprint nationally. The TMC, in its bid to enter Tripura's political arena, recently engaged in a bitter battle with the BJP during the municipal elections there. It is also gearing up to contest the assembly elections in Goa to pitch Banerjee firmly as the foremost anti-BJP opposition voice.

Assembly elections in Goa and Tripura are due in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

Banerjee, while speaking on her government's vision in her third tenure, said, "I am working towards bringing industry in the state so that jobs can be generated. That's my aim, and I will achieve it," she said.

The TMC boss asked the party candidates in the KMC polls to work for the people and ensure that their grievances related to civic issues are addressed at the earliest.

Banerjee said several sitting councillors were dropped this time for "non-performance".

"The MPs and MLAs cannot do everything. People's representatives mainly do the work of an area. The councillor has to fulfil his responsibilities. If you don't work, you have to step down," she said.

In the last KMC polls held in 2015, the TMC had won 126 out of the 144 seats. It had retained 87 sitting councillors and had dropped 39.

Referring to receiving a complaint against a councillor from her assembly constituency Bhabanipur, Banerjee said the party did not give the councillor nomination this time as he was a "non-performer".