West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee meets Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray during Mumbai visit

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee meets NCP and Shiv Sena leaders in Mumbai, criticizes BJP government's stability.

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC head Mamata Banerjee on July 12 met Nationalist Congress Party (SP) president Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray during her first visit to Mumbai after the declaration of Lok Sabha poll results more than a month ago.

Ms. Banerjee claimed the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was unstable, and may not complete its term. “This government may not continue also. This is not a stable government,” she said at a press conference with Mr. Thackeray. “Khela has begun, it will go on,” she said when asked to elaborate.

On the Union government’s move to observe June 25, when the Emergency was imposed in 1975, as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas’, Ms. Banerjee said times associated with the Emergency were being seen most during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The West Bengal CM said no one was consulted when the three laws - Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) that replaced the Indian Penal Code(IPC), Code of Criminal Procedure(CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act, respectively, were tabled in Parliament. It was passed when a large number of MPs were suspended, she said, adding many people are afraid of these new laws. “We do not support Emergency....(but) charity begins at home,” she asserted.

Ms. Banerjee also said it was “absolutely unethical” to take away the name and symbol from Mr. Thackeray’s Shiv Sena faction, but added the party fought like a tiger. The Shiv Sena split in June 2022 and the party name and ‘bow and arrow’ symbol was given to the faction led by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The WB CM said she would campaign for Mr. Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) in the Maharashtra assembly polls likely to be held in October-November.

The Trinamool Congress, the NCP (SP) and the Shiv Sena (UBT) are constituents of the opposition INDIA bloc. In Maharashtra, the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) bagged 30 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats, stunning the ruling Mahayuti, which comprises the BJP, the Shiv Sena and the NCP. Constituents of the MVA, including the Congress, are members of the INDIA alliance at the national level.