Rahul extend support to Mamta Banerjee Talks Of “Unity” A Day Before Rally
NEW DELHI :Rahul Gandhi has extended his support and said he hoped the show of strength will send a powerful message of a united India. Has told Mamata Banerjee he will support Saturday’s rally of opposition parties in Kolkata one that the West Bengal Chief Minister has said will sound the “death knell” for the BJP.
The All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) hopes to use the rally scheduled to be held at Kolkata’s Brigade Parade Ground to prop Mamata Banerjee as a leader who can “take along other parties” and challenge the BJP after the Lok Sabha election due by May.Leaders from over 20 opposition parties are expected to attend. The Congress and the TMC are rivals in West Bengal.
“The entire opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas the BJP and Mr Modi are intent on destroying,” Rahul told Mamata Banerjee in a letter.
“It will be a ‘United India Rally’ against the misrule of the BJP. It will sound the death knell for the BJP,” Mamata Banerjee said on Thursday. “The saffron party’s seat count in the general election will not cross 125. The number of seats the state parties will win will be much higher than that of the BJP’s.”
“The federal parties, that is the regional parties, will be the deciding factor after the elections,” she said.The top leaders expected at the rally include Chief Ministers HD Kumaraswamy (Karnataka), Chandrababu Naidu (Andhra Pradesh) and Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi), former PM HD Deve Gowda, and former CM Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah (Jammu and Kashmir) and Akhilesh Yadav (Uttar Pradesh). NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Lalu Yadav’s son Tejashwi Yadav from the RJD.
Rahul said there are millions of Indians, who can see through the “false promises and lies peddled by the Modi government”, and are hoping for a new tomorrow, one where they were be heard and respected. “The entire opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas that the BJP and Mr Modi are intent on destroying,” Gandhi said.
Rahul Gandhi wrote to Mamata Banerjee today in support of her “United India rally” in Kolkata on Saturday, tipped to be a major gathering of anti-BJP parties ahead of the national election due by May. “The entire opposition is united,” the Congress president said in his letter addressed to “Mamata Di”.
“I extend my support to Mamata Di on this show of unity and hope that we send a powerful message of a united India together,” Rahul Gandhi wrote in the message. “The entire opposition is united in our belief that true nationalism and development can only be defended on the tested pillars of democracy, social justice and secularism, ideas that the BJP and Mr Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) are intent on destroying.”
He also referred to “powerful forces fanned by anger and disappointment of hundreds of millions of Indians who had seen through false promises and lies peddled by the Modi government.” These forces, said the Congress chief, were moved by an idea of India in which the voice of “every man, woman and child would be heard”, no matter what their religion, economic status or region.
Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi are not attending Mamata Banerjee’s event; the Congress will be represented by Mallikarjun Kharge and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.Mayawati is another prominent absentee, though she too, will send her lieutenant Satish Mishra.(With Agency Inputs).
