‘Not your party’s member’: Mamata hits back at Modi over second seat contest dig

Dinhata (WB): Asserting that she was winning the election from Nandigram, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that she does not need his “suggestion” on contesting from any other seat.

The prime minister had on Thursday asked Banerjee to clarify whether there is truth in the “rumours” that she was going to file the nomination for another seat going to the polls in the last phase, maintaining that the TMC chief has admitted defeat in Nandigram.

“I want to tell the prime minister to control his home minister first and then try to control us. We are not your party’s members that you will control us,” Banerjee said at an election rally in Dinhata in the north Bengal district of Coochbehar.

“I am not your party’s member that you will suggest me to contest from another seat. I have contested from Nandigram and will win from there,” she added.

At a rally in Uluberia on Thursday, Modi said that the people of Bengal are prepared if she goes anywhere else to contest, anticipating defeat in Nandigram, where she was up against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, her former close aide.

Banerjee, who began her north Bengal tour with the rally here, alleged that the election is not being conducted by the Election Commission but by Amit Shah, the Home Minister.

She alleged that the central forces were being used to intimidate the voters.

“I want more than 200 seats, since anything less than that will mean they (BJP) will buy the ‘gaddars’ (traitors),” Banerjee said, apparently admitting that TMC MLAs may be up for grabs if her party wins by a slender margin in the elections for the 294-member assembly.