Kolkata: Buoyed by the high turnout in North Bengal in the first phase of Assembly elections, both Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as well as CPM's Prakash Karat on Tuesday claimed that their fronts will win.
"CPM is going to be ousted from power in West Bengal this time. The Left Front will not even get ten of the 54 seats in North Bengal," Banerjee told an election rally in North 24 Parganas district adjoining Kolkata. "People want change from Marxist misrule. The Trinamool begins its victory lap from North Bengal where we were not that strong till the other day," she said.
Eyeing to retain the minority votebank, which has veered towards the party since the 2008 panchayat polls and is being desperately wooed by the Left ever since, Banerjee said, "If we come to power, we will implement the Sachar Committee report on minority development in the state and invite Justice
Sachar to West Bengal and take his suggestions for improvement of the lot of Muslims."
Alleging a BJP-CPM nexus to split TMC-Congress votes, she said, "With BJP failing to cut ice among voters, it has taken the help of the RSS. "Its (RSS) cadres are urging voters at Deganga not to cast their votes in favour of Mamata Banerjee. Am I not a Hindu woman? Hindus are my brothers. I am strongly for
Hindu-Muslim brotherhood and amity and against any attempt to create division among them," she said.
Slamming the Left Front government for allegedly failing to solve the 'alarming' unemployment problem, Banerjee promised jobs and industrialisation in the state. "If elected to power we will create ten lakh new jobs as pledged in the Trinamool Congress election manifesto," she said.
"Let our new slogan be change, and not revenge. We want everyone to get education and work. We will bring a new dawn. Let us build a new Bengal," she said.
Trinamool Congress holds sway in South Bengal where it had won 19 Lok Sabha seats out of the total 42 seats in 2009. The party is now trying to make inroads in North Bengal.
Meanwhile, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday said it was a "good sign" that people had come out in large numbers to vote in the first phase of polling in the state. "It is a good sign," he said when reporters sought his
comment in this regard.
Karat arrived here to address election meetings in favour of Left Front candidates in South 24-Parganas district and Kolkata in the next two days.
The 54 seats, where polling was held yesterday, represent less than a fifth of the 294 seats in the Legislative Assembly. The polling in the first phase of assembly elections covering six northern districts of West Bengal on Monday saw a high turnout of 74.27 per cent.
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