"Mamata Banerjee Stands For Everything Anti-BJP Voters Want": Trinamool

Sushmita Dev was yesterday declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal. She was with the Congress till about a month ago.

The Trinamool Congress is "a force to reckon" within all the new electoral geographies it is now trying to enter, West Bengal's ruling party said today. Its expansion is the need of the hour because people are looking for an alternative, its spokesperson said.

This seemingly confident stance came amid the Trinamool's recent ventures into the northeast and Goa, among other states. The party, according to its newest Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, feels its leader Mamata Banerjee offers a whole bunch of qualities and ideological stands that most of the voters opposed to the BJP are today looking for.

"Mamata Banerjee's face counts. She stands for credibility. She stands for good governance. She stands for inclusive politics. All of which the anti-BJP vote-bank wants," Ms Dev, who left the Congress and joined the Trinamool a little over a month ago, told NDTV in an exclusive interview.

"Of course, you can't take electoral politics for granted. Things can go wrong. We are very very optimistic and confident that...we will help in every way to block the Bharatiya Janata Party," she said.