By IANS
Kolkata : In a surprise announcement Thursday, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee formally severed ties with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). She cited no reasons, but said her party would “try to help” minorities and go it alone for now.
“I want you to know that we have severed our ties with the NDA,” Banerjee said, addressing a Madrassa Students Union here.
“I had joined the alliance as I had great love and respect for former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But, now we want to stand on our feet and would like to go it alone this time,” She said.
Banerjee said she had wanted to sever ties with the alliance long back, but was persuaded to stay back by senior NDA leaders.
“After the riots in Gujarat (in 2002), I had wanted to sever ties with the NDA. I had demanded the resignation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and even persuaded Vajpayee to remove him, but the alliance did not heed to my request then,” the Trinamool Congress chief said.
She said her party always had the welfare of the minority population in mind even while her party was with the NDA. “Our party has always tried to help the minority population in whatever way we could and would always try to do so in future,” Banerjee said.
Reacting to her announcement, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the NDA, said her move was due to political calculations.
“It is nothing but vote bank politics. Mamata is trying to woo the minority population with an eye on the panchayat election. If she wanted to sever her ties, she should have called a press conference to make her announcement,” BJP West Bengal chief Rahul Sinha told reporters.
However, the Congress welcomed the move. “We were averse to joining hands with her as she had links with NDA. Now, we will not have any problem in forging ties with her,” Pradip Bhattacharjee, state Congress chief, told reporters.
Banerjee had joined hands with Congress before the 2001 Lok Sabha elections, but the alliance came to an end after her party fared miserably in the polls.