Mamata blames it on Gill, Centre

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, MAY 14. A day after her defeat in the Assembly election, the Trinamool Congress chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, today stepped out in public to put the responsibility of the Congress-Trinamool combine's debacle at the doorstep of Election Commission, the BJP-run NDA Government at the Centre and the State administration.

Ms. Banerjee accused the Chief Election Commissioner, Dr. M.S. Gill, of being in cahoots with the Centre and the State Government to trounce the alliance. ``He played into the hands of the Centre to defeat us in the poll. He will retire in June and I will not be surprised if the Centre purchased him.''

She made these observations at a packed press conference at her Kalighat residence in south Kolkata. Also present were Mr. Subrata Mukherjee, Mr. Pankaj Banerjee and a few other newly- elected Trinamool MLAs.

The Trinamool chief said she had sent countless messages to the Election Commission during the poll and even during the re- polling in 90 booths, but in vain. ``He (Dr. Gill) never bothered to talk to me even once. Either he was out for dinner or busy in meetings.''

What was surprising was Ms. Banerjee's volte face with regard to the position she had taken on the combine's defeat. On Sunday, when it became clear that the combine was losing the battle, she said, ``I accept the people's verdict.''

Ms. Banerjee also lashed out at the Vajpayee Government - for the first time since she quit the NDA - saying it had adopted a ``vindictive'' attitude towards Trinamool. ``The NDA influenced the Election Commission, which neither paid any heed to our complaints nor took measures to check rigging by the Communists in the poll.''

Contrary to speculation in a section of the media, she said would not return to the NDA-fold. ``We have resigned from NDA and we will not go back to it.''

The verdict in favour of the ruling Leftists was not a true reflection of the people's sentiments. They desired a change in government but the Communists did not allow them to cast their votes in favour of the Congress-Trinamool combine by unleashing terror. ``Even the Chief Minister, Mr. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, rigged the election in his Jadavpur constituency.''

According to Ms. Banerjee, the results showed that the Communists had resorted to largescale rigging. For example, the CPI(M) candidates in Garbeta and Keshpur in Midnapore district won by a margin, which almost equalled the size of the electorate. ``The CPI(M) is like the Nazis,'' she said.

Following the combine's debacle, she had expressed the desire to resign from the post of Trinamool chief owning responsibility. The party's policy-making body, however, dissuaded her from doing so, saying it would continue anti- Communist movements under her leadership.

Pranab promises support

The State Congress chief, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, today met Ms. Banerjee to review the poll results and also to boost her morale. The Congress, he said, would back her in her anti-Left campaign. He advised her to concentrate on building up the organisation to counter the Communists' poll machinery.

Trinamool sources said Ms. Banerjee had decided to adopt an aggressive stance to deflect any attempt by party functionaries to blame her for the debacle. Many workers have started airing grievances over the manner in which she ran the party on the advice of only a few individuals.

PTI reports:

The dissident Trinamool leader, Mr. Ajit Panja, today said Ms. Banerjee should take a ``lesson'' from the results and respect the mandate of the people. Speaking to presspersons, he said Ms. Banerjee, though in a state of shock at the ``poor poll results'', should respect her party workers as also the mandate of the people.

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