TMC is national party, stands for `temple, mosque, church’: Mamata says in Goa

PANAJI, (PTI): Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, on a visit to Goa where polls are due next year, on Friday said her party is national and ”can go anywhere”, and its initials — TMC — also stand for ”temple, mosque and church.”

The BJP calls her ”anti-Hindu”, but it has no right to issue a ”character certificate”, the West Bengal chief minister said.

Asked whether she was eyeing the prime minister’s post in 2024, she evaded reply.

The West Bengal chief minister, who arrived in the BJP-ruled Goa on Thursday evening on a three-day visit, said the TMC did not intend to divide votes in the coastal state, and if it came to power, Goa will not be run from Delhi.

On Friday, she met local party leaders and also interacted with members of the fishing community at Malim Jetty near here.

Tennis player Leander Paes, actor Nafisa Ali and entrepreneur Mrinalini Deshprabhu joined the TMC in her presence.

Addressing local TMC leaders at another event, Banerjee said, ”When I come to Goa, they deface my posters. You (BJP) will be blacklisted by the people from the country.

”You deface us, show black flags, refuse to grant permission (to hold event) because you know that TMC will die but will never compromise,” she further said.

If the TMC won power in Goa, it will not pursue an agenda of revenge but work for the state, she said.

Listing various welfare schemes implemented by her government in West Bengal, she said her party can do it in a smaller state like Goa too.

”I will be happy to do it. I am not going to be the chief minister of Goa, but I will see to it that there is a policy, mechanism and no corruption in the government,” Banerjee added.

The TMC is a national party and ”it can go anywhere,” she asserted.

”We will work for Goa in a resolute way. It is not that we want to divide votes. You have given opportunity to all (other) parties, now give opportunity to the TMC,” Banerjee said.

”BJP calls me anti-Hindu, but they are no one to give me character certificate. They should first decide their own character certificate,” she said.

The TMC doesn’t divide people on the basis of religion but ”we unite people,” and the party’s initials ”stand for temple, mosque and church,” Banerjee added.

Recalling her stint as a Union minister in the past, the TMC chief said she has traveled across the country. ”I know India very well,” she said.

Speaking to the media, Banerjee, who inflicted defeat on the BJP in an intensely fought assembly election in her home state earlier this year, evaded reply when asked if she was aiming for the prime minister’s post in 2024.

“If I tell you everything right now, what will I tell later?” she said.

Asked whether the TMC’s decision to contest Goa elections next year was part of a larger plan about the 2024 general elections, Banerjee said, “We will contest the elections in 2024.

“We are transparent. We don’t play hide and seek. We will are a transparent party,” she said. (PTI)