“Oust Modi,” was the leitmotif of speeches at the rally, held ahead of the Lok Sabha elections this year. “The country is waiting for a new Prime Minister,” said Akhilesh Yadav as he arrived at the venue.
LOK SABHA ELECTIONS Updated: Jan 19, 2019 16:41 IST
Hindustan Times
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal of the Aam Aadmi Party said the BJP must be “defeated at any cost in 2019,” while the Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi warned against allowing a division of votes, also saying, “A rainbow of 22 parties is replacing dark clouds.”
“Send Modi home, save the country,” said 12th speaker M K Stalin of the DMK, speaking in Tamil. “Modi has realised that defeat is certain,” he said, also adding that he has “no personal animosity against Modi, but oppose his policies.” Stalin accused PM Modi of converting “the country into a private limited company of which he is the MD.”
Stalin invoked poet Rabindra Nath Tagore; Hardik Patel talked about Subhash Chandra Bose. In the audience are singers, poets and personalities from the Bengali film and television industry.
Read: ‘Testing times for democracy’: Opposition slams NDA govt at Mamata rally
Among other leaders on stage are former prime minister and Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) chief H D Deve Gowda and is son and Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumarasway, former Maharashtra CM and ex-Union minister Sharad Pawar and former Arunachal Pradesh CM Gegong Apang and Omar Abdullah of the National Conference Party and his father Farooq Abdullah.
Mamata Banerjee is using the show of strength to emphasise her position as an important leader as opposition parties attempt to build a united front to take on the ruling BJP in the general election this year, when PM Modi will seek a second term.
Read: At Mamata’s rally ‘Shotgun’ Sinha stops short of endorsing her as PM
As the BJP swept the parliament elections in 2014, reducing the Congress to its lowest ever tally of 44 seats, Mamata Banerjees party had bagged 34 of Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats, emerging as the third largest party. This year, Mamata Banerjee has set her eyes on winning all of Bengal’s seats to ensure hers is the largest team in Parliament among all regional parties.
“Who is their leader? This is just an anti-Modi exercise and the people of the country can see through it,” said the BJP’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy said at a press conference in Delhi, asserting, “People have seen the performance of the Narendra Modi government … We will form the next government with full majority.”
Source: Hindustan Times