West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday (February 10, 2025) told her party legislators that she will return to power in the Assembly election scheduled in 2026 with a two-thirds majority.
The Trinamool Congress chief made the remarks at a closed-door meeting with MLAs at the start of the Budget Session of the West Bengal Assembly.
The remarks by Ms. Banerjee come after the Delhi election results and comments by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders that West Bengal was the next target of the saffron party. The BJP won the Delhi Assembly polls defeating Aam Admi Party (AAP).
During the meeting with Trinamool MLAs, the party chairperson said that they should concentrate on the upcoming Assembly polls in the State and should resist factionalism in the party.
The Chief Minister told the legislators that she does not have any family and the party was her family. “I have no family, you all are my family,” she said. Ms. Banerjee touched upon numerous issues during her address and asked party MLAs to refrain from making any comments in public.
Recently, a number of party MLAs have spoken out in public, speaking about corruption in certain sections of the party. Referring to senior party MLA Madan Mitra, who later apologised for his remarks, the Chief Minister asked how many times should people be forgiven. While the party chairperson chided a few MLAs, she also appreciated the initiatives of few MLAs including that of Itahar MLA.
Presented a book
The Chief Minister also asked the MLAs to submit three names for the party’s block level organisation to Minister Aroop Biswas by February 25. The MLAs were presented with a copy of a book titled ‘Lipiboddho’ which documents various works undertaken by the party leader, from the period she was Railway Minister and Chief Minister of West Bengal for the past 13 years.
Sources in the party said that the purpose of distributing the book was to familiarise the legislators with the initiatives taken by the party chairperson and the Trinamool Congress government so that they can spread it among the people.
Ms. Banerjee also spoke to her party legislators about the outcome of Delhi elections and said the defeat for Arvind Kejriwal’s party was because of division of votes between the Congress and the AAP. She, however, added, “In Bengal nobody else will be required” to defeat the BJP.
The Trinamool Congress government led by Ms. Banerjee had come to power in 2011. The party maintains a comfortable majority well above the two-third mark in the State Assembly.
Published - February 10, 2025 09:20 pm IST
