Kolkata/New Delhi: Doing what she is best at, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday escalated her protest against the Centre and the CBI by vowing to continue her “satyagraha” to save the country and the Constitution till February 8 amid a tsunami of support from Opposition parties.
Fuelling her prime ministerial ambition, Ms Banerjee tactically pitched herself to the forefront of a united Opposition, whose leaders tore into the Central government on the floor of Parliament and outside.
While Ms Banerjee continued her dharna at Metro Cinema in Esplanade, central Kolkata, the Trinamul claimed it has the support of almost all Opposition parties, an indication that the West Bengal Chief Minister is aiming at nothing less than the Prime Minister’s chair with a virtual replay of her January 19 Kolkata rally.
“This is a satyagraha and I’ll continue (it) till the country is saved... Constitution is saved,” a combative Ms Banerjee told reporters at the protest site, escalating her confrontation with the Narendra Modi government, a day after an all-out war broke out between the two.
In the Lok Sabha, Union home minister Rajnath Singh called the developments in West Bengal “unfortunate and unprecedented” and indicative of a constitutional breakdown.
“There may be breakdown of Constitution in West Bengal...Under the Constitution, the Central government has been vested with the power to maintain normalcy in any part of the country,” Mr Singh told the Lok Sabha on Monday.
“Whatever happened on Sunday indicates constitutional breakdown,” he said as a host of Opposition parties threw their weight behind the feisty West Bengal leader.
