GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said he will welcome Mamata Banerjee to Assam and Tripura with a red carpet “to divide votes of the Congress”.
Speaking at an event to commemorate the foundation day of Trinamool Chatra Parishad (TMCP) in Kolkata on Saturday, the TMC supremo dared the BJP with “khela hobe in Tripura and Assam” jab ahead of 2024 general elections. But Sarma said considering Mamata’s vote bank and focused areas, her presence in the northeastern states will mainly split Congress votes. He also called former All India Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev, who recently joined TMC, a district-level leader in Assam.
“What to play with her? Didi keeps on visiting Assam. She will pay obeisance to Maa (Kamakhya) and return to Bengal. What will she do in Assam?” Sarma replied when asked by reporters about Mamata’s remarks. Sarma was in Siliguri to console the family members of former BJP leader Alak Kumar Ghoshe, who died recently. Ghose was an MLA from Mariani in upper Assam where bypoll is due along with four other constituencies. Sarma said Mamata’s aggressive campaign in Tripura and Assam in the coming elections will be “beneficial for the BJP”. “Her trips to Assam and Tripura will only help us. I will welcome her with a red carpet to help BJP in the upcoming elections,” he said. TMC supremo Mamata had said, “Khela hobe in Tripura. In Assam as well khela hobe, all-India khela hobe. And in 2024, in Delhi also khela hobe. We are ready to die but not ready to sell the country to the BJP.”
Sarma took a dig at Mamata for the law-and-order situation in West Bengal, as Calcutta High Court had recently ordered a CBI probe into Bengal post-poll violence. “Assam and West Bengal went to the polls simultaneously. But not even a stone was thrown at a rival’s house in Assam. Here, the high court had to order a CBI probe. The difference in law and order is easily visible,” Sarma added.
In Assam, Mamata has been successful in roping in one of the most prominent faces of the Congress in Delhi, Sushmita Dev, to spearhead the campaign in the upcoming elections in the region. But Sarma brushed aside the speculations that Sushmita’s joining Trinamool can pose a major threat to the saffron coalition in Tripura and Assam. In Tripura, however, many MLAs are reportedly in touch with Trinamool leadership and may join the party as their present term as legislators are nearing the end. “Sushmita Dev’s position is not pan-Assam. She is confined to a district,” Sarma said, adding that Congress and Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF will be losers from her joining the TMC as she can wean away votes from the two anti-BJP parties in Barak Valley in south Assam from where she belongs.
Sarma said his government is committed to drop all cases against the Gorkha community in foreigners tribunals. He added that efforts are on to free the remaining Hindu Bengalis from detention camps. “We have given the Gorkhas protected class status even in tribal belts and blocks. I think only 12 Bengali Hindus are there in the detention camp. They are also in the process of getting released. Things will be quite normal in the next couple of months,” he said.
