Kolkata:
“It’s not the about the age, it’s about the mileage”.
Mamata Banerjee channelising her inner Indiana Jones. Telling her critics that she remains fighting fit and will live to “see the end of BJP rule”.
Even as many political observers are busy writing Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s political obituary, the mercurial leader has hit back saying that she still has firepower left in her to rebuild her party that has been dogged by defections since the Assembly election rout.
Challenging the naysayers, 71-year-old Banerjee in a Facebook address said, “You don’t need to worry about my age. Mind, body and mental power build age. Did I ever ask about the Prime Minister’s age? Don’t dare to insult a human being over age. BJP people wished for me to die of heart attack on the day of the Assembly Election results. But I will survive till I see your end.”
While brushing aside age-factor for her comeback, Mamata Banerjee vowed to rebuild her party like she claimed to have done twice earlier.
“Whoever wants to leave, can go. Whatever remains is my goldmine. I still have the power to make a fresh start in 2026 like I did it alone in 2004 and 1997. I have this much guts. I have built not one but three generations of leaders and will act as an umbrella for those generations who are with me now.”
“Korbo, Lorbo, Bachbo” (I will fight and I will survive), the former chief minister declared making it clear that she is far from hanging her political boots.
Mamata Banerjee has been battling unprecedented rebellion within her party that has seen control of Trinamool Congress slip from her hands. Both in the state Assembly and Parliament, majority of her elected MLAs and MPs have revolted. While majority of her MLAs have rallied behind rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee, 20 of her Lok Sabha MPs have merged with a little-known party and have declared support to the NDA.
Mamata Banerjee’s emotional Wednesday message came days ahead of the Trinamool Congress’ July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally, an important date in the party’s political calendar. The day will see two rival factions observing the event just a kilometer apart from each other.
The Calcutta high court on Wednesday allowed the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) faction to hold its annual July 21 Martyrs’ Day rally at a site near the Birla Planetarium instead of its traditional venue in front of Victoria House in central Kolkata.
The Martyrs’ Day rally commemorates the 13 Congress workers killed during a protest in 1993, when Mamata Banerjee was the president of the Youth Congress, the Congress party’s youth wing. The event has since become the TMC’s annual Martyrs’ Day programme.
