States cannot be run by sending across a ‘laddoo’ from Delhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday, while calling for an end to Delhi’s dadagiri, while also rooting for a stronger union of states and a fair federal structure.
Addressing a press conference in Goa, where Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is preparing for the 2022 state assembly polls, the party founder also kept the option of allying with other political parties open and claiming that BJP personal attack at her and the series of defacements of her posters was a sign that the BJP was “cultureless”.
“Delhi's dadagiri has to stop. Goa should stand on its own feet and we will help it fight. We will make a system, mechanism (for it),” Banerjee told her press conference, her first since her party dropped anchor in Goa nearly two months back.
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“It is not that a laddoo will come from Delhi and Delhi laddoo, Goa will run,” she also said.
When asked which political party, specifically the BJP, Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party, she was referring to vis a vis her charge of dadagiri, Banerjee said: “It is for everyone, whoever does dadagiri”.
The West Bengal Chief Minister also rejected insinuations that the Trinamool Congress would split the opposition vote and benefit the BJP.
“We don't want to divide the vote. But don't ask me the question that there will be any feudal landlord-giri, dadagiri that only Delhi people will contest the election, no other people. That is not,” the TMC founder said.
“We want to see a strong union of states, states should be self sufficient, federal structure should be strong,” she added.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee met representatives from the fisherfolk community and announced several sops including allowances, tripling of existing subsidies for commercial fishing etc. She also visited a series of temples as part of her visit to the poll-bound state.
When asked if the TMC was keen on an alliance ahead of the 2022 polls in Goa, Banerjee said: “I cannot discuss everything in detail in this meeting now. It depends on (the) situation and everything and we have to discuss it with the local leaders. It is a collective decision. It is not an individual decision”.
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