Bhubaneswar: Announcing its plan to continue with agitations till the ouster of Narendra Modi from the helm, the Trinamool Congress today said it foresaw Mamata Banerjee as a future prime minister.
"This could happen one day. After all, we are a political party which is growing by the day. People may decide that (making Mamata the PM)," TMC general secretary and West Bengal state unit chief Subrata Bakshi said here.
He was speaking to reporters after addressing TMC's 'Fight Against Financial Emergency' rally, organised by the Odisha unit of the party.
"Looking at the prevailing political situation in the country, all the secular parties are assembling on one platform. However, who will lead them will only be answered in the future," Bakshi said.
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Claiming that the TMC's stock was improving by the day, he said, "We had only two MPs in 2004, which increased to 19 in 2009 and to 34 in 2014. Therefore, the party will grow further in 2019 too."
Asked about the party's existence outside West Bengal, Bakshi said it was stepping into different states.
"Today, we are staging agitations in eight states against Modi's demonetisation. We will hold such agitations in 29 states in the next three-four months," he said, adding that party chief Mamata Banerjee had all along been a people's leader who hit the streets whenever the people were put to trouble.
"Our leader opposed demonetisation the very next day Modi announced it. We will fight it out as the people are behind Mamata Banerjee," Bakshi said, claiming that the BJP's strength had been "declining by the day" after the 2014 general elections.
"BJP, which got seven MPs from Delhi, was first rejected by the people in the Assembly polls barely seven months after the 2014 general elections. In November 2015, the people of Bihar rejected it, though they had sent 31 of the 40 MPs from the party to Parliament in 2014. In Uttar Pradesh also, the people will reject the BJP in the February polls even though the party had won 70 of the 81 Lok Sabha seats in the general elections," the TMC leader said.
On the arrest of two TMC MPs in a chit fund scam, Bakshi said, "They (Centre) cannot stop Mamata Banerjee from raising her voice against the plight of the people. The CBI may arrest more TMC leaders, but we will continue to fight.
"Modi, Mayawati and Lalu have faced the CBI in the past. All of them had said that they were booked in false cases. Now, you decide what CBI is."
Former West Bengal minister Manas Bhunia, who also addressed the rally, demanded a clarification from the Centre on the death of "over 120 people due to demonetisation".