Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she was against imposition of President's rule in West Bengal but reiterated her demand for advancing the May 2011 assembly elections.
"I would have made a demand for applying Article 356 to remove the Left Front government immediately after the Lok Sabha elections (when the Left Front fared poorly), but did not," Banerjee told a party rally for the upcoming civic polls. "I am against application of Article 356 to remove a government, but the Left Front government's days are numbered anyway," she said.
Banerjee said she had not made any unjustified demand by seeking early Assembly elections in October instead of scheduled May, 2011, as polls would be held in many states byOctober. Daring Left Front Chairman Biman Bose for ridiculing her demand, she said "I am afraid that CPI-M leaders are not aware of constitutional provisions." The Trinamool supremo, who kicked off the election campaign for civic polls in south Kolkata alleged that the CPI-M was plotting violence during the civic elections in Bengal. "I won't allow bloodshed in the city and warn the CPI-M
Banerjee, who was unsparing in her attack on CPI(M)-led Left Front also made a veiled reference to the Congress, with which its seat-sharing alliance for the civic polls collapsed. "It will be a direct fight between the Trinamool Congress and CPI(M), but those in the middle, will be swept away."
She said the civic elections were a litmus test for the assembly elections and added, "This election is significant as the people of Bengal will throw out the CPI(M) and bring in change for peace and development." She claimed that though change had come to many states, it had not occurred in West Bengal as people were not allowed to exercise their voting rights with the CPI(M) "rigging" elections to stay in power for 34 years.
"I warn the CPI(M) that the days of rigging are past," she said. Banerjee claimed that over 250 Trinamool workers were killed in Marxist violence and attacks since the last Lok Sabha elections. The rally was also addressed by party MP Sudip Bandopadhyay, Leader of the Opposition in Assembly Partha Chatterjee and leaders like Somen Mitra and Subrata Mukherjee.
