Trinamool Congress doesn't need Congress: Mamata

Kolkata, Buoyed by Trinamool Congress victory
in the Howrah Lok Sabha bye-election in West Bengal, Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee today said her party did not require
Congress and through their verdict, people have given a
message to go it alone.
"Congress requires us. We don't need Congress. The people
in Howrah have given the message that we should go alone. Our
victory reflected the mahajot (grand alliance) of people
against all immoral alliance. Our's was a solo fight. It
ushered in a new arithmetic, a new chapter," Banerjee told
reporters after TMC candidate Prasun Banerjee's victory.
In the bye-election to the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat, which
was vacated by Pranab Mukherjee, TMC did not field its
candidate, "but Congress had fielded its candidate in Howrah,"
she said.
Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee had won Jangipur
by a slender margin.
Coming to the bye-elections in other states, Banerjee
said, "Congress is zero everywhere. Left also has no
existence. If I understand politics, the bypoll result also
indicate that despite hobnobbing with Congress, Left will be
zero."
Banerjee said, "The Left will be left out. It cannot
survive by hobnobbing sometime with Congress and sometime with
BJP."
Congress had a pocket of influence at Sankrail, an
Assembly segment in the Howrah Lok Sabha seat, and voters
there switched loyalty to the CPI-M, she said.
Turning to the withdrawal of the BJP candidate in Howrah,
she said, two independent candidates supported by BJP were in
the fray. BJP's votes also went to the CPI-M, she claimed.
Referring to the TMC candidate's reduced victory margin in
Howrah, she argued that in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections there
was 77 per cent turnout of voters while in this bye-election
it was around 68 per cent.
Many voters, who worked outside the state, were absent on
the polling day while hot weather was not conducive, she said.
"Yet, we secured 46 per cent votes and our candidate won
by a margin of around 28,000 votes," she noted and said
Congress bagged 10 per cent votes.
She said that this bye-election should not be equated with
other elections; it had a different perspective.
"It was a tough fight for us. We were fighting alone. Lots
of canards were hurled against us, yet I maintained silence.
The people have given their reply".
"During the Left Front rule, the people could not exercise
their democratic rights. We won not through rigging, but
people have exercised their franchise freely," she asserted.
Asked if the Saradha chit fund scam had any impact on the
by-poll, she said, "Chit funds had flourished during the Left
Front rule even before our party was formed. Chit fund
companies appeared during Jyoti Bau's tenure and flourished
during the tenure of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee".
She expressed confidence that after the victory in Howrah,
TMC would do well in the coming panchayat election.