West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday wrote letters to top ten Opposition leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi calling on them to unite against the BJP and defend democracy in India. She has suggested a meeting to make a strategy to take on BJP after the assembly polls.
The seven-point letter stated that time has come for a "united and effective struggle against BJP's attacks on democracy and the constitution" and "presenting a credible alternative to the people of India".
Ms Banerjee in the letter mentions the controversial law that gives more power to the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and also gave seven other examples that she called the BJP’s "assaults" on democracy and cooperative Federalism.
In the three page letter, Mamata wrote, "I am writing this letter...to convey my serious concerns over a series of assaults by the BJP and its government at the Centre on democracy and constitutional federalism in India.”
"The BJP wants to make it impossible for non-BJP parties to exercise their constitutional rights and freedoms. It wants to dilute the powers of the state governments and downgrade them to mere municipalities. In short, it wants to establish a one-party authoritarian rule in India," she added.
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She further wrote, "I strongly believe that the time has come for a united and effective struggle against BJP's attacks on democracy and the constitution... As the chairperson of TMC, I shall work wholeheartedly with you and all other like-minded parties in this battle.”
The Trinamool Congress supremo, besides Sonia Gandhi, has sent the letter to 15 non-BJP leaders including Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar, DMK's Stalin, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik, Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrashekar Rao, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Jana Dal's Tejaswi Yadav, Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren as well as NC chief Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti. The notable exclusions were CPI and CPIM.
