Mamata’s offer to resign a lie, drama: BJP’s Mukul Roy

Kolkata: Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s wish to resign from her post as “a blatant lie and drama to capture newspaper headlines”, BJP leader Mukul Roy on Sunday said the Trinamool Congress supremo will never step down unless people vote her out of power.

Two days after her party suffered serious setbacks in the Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday offered to step down from the post at a party meeting, but said her decision was not endorsed by her fellow party leaders.

“We saw a drama yesterday. In order to grab the newspaper headlines, she said she wanted to resign from the post of Chief Minister. In reality, she might have written the resignation letter to herself and later rejected it on her own,” Roy told reporters here.

“Mamata Banerjee will never resign. She will never be able to shun the greed of power. I can give this to you in writing. She will not resign until people throw her into the dustbin by exercising their democratic rights,” he said.

Roy, once the second in command in Banerjee’s party, also accused her of insulting the minorities in the state by comparing them with “cows” and said such statements show her disdainful attitude towards the Muslims.

“Did she compare the Muslim community with cows? She should clarify. Her statement shows that she treats the minority community as cows and uses them for her benefit. This is her mindset about the community,” he alleged.

During her press conference on Saturday, Banerjee had made a controversial statement while indicating that she would continue to attend ‘Iftaar’ even though the opposition accuses her appeasing Muslims.

Citing an old Bengali proverb, she had said: “I appease Muslims, no? I will go there a hundred times. ‘Je goru dudh dei tar lathio khete hoi’ (if a cow gives milk, one should be prepared for its kicks too).”

Referring to the 2019 election results in Bengal, where the BJP registered unprecedented success by winning in 18 out of 42 Lok Sabha seats, Roy, also the party’s chief election strategist in the state, said the BJP was ahead in 124 assembly segments, while it has lost to Trinamool by slender margins in at least 30 more assembly segments.

He also claimed that the BJP candidate in the Arambag parliamentary constituency was defeated unjustly as the returning officer did not count 56 electronic voting machines (EVMs) and said the party would soon move the court on this issue.

The Arambag Lok Sabha seat witnessed a nail-biting battle between the two parties before BJP’s Tapan Kumar Roy was defeated by Trinamool’s Aparupa Poddar by just 1,142 votes.

“It was illegal and unethical. The returning officer did not count at least 56 EVMs in the name of matching its record with the VVPAT. Right now, the Election Commission’s role is completed, so we will move court on this issue,” he added.

Published on: May 26, 2019 at 20:05 IST

IANS