BJP criticises Mamata for frequently changing allies

KOLKATA - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday took a dig at Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress for “frequently changing allies and hobnobbing with Maoists”.

Speaking at a rally in the city, senior leader L.K. Advani said: “It (Trinamool) keeps on changing allies, sometimes with this party, sometimes with that party. How can you trust such a party?”

Although the Trinamool and the BJP were alliance partners from 1998 to 2008, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has been switching her allegiance frequently between the BJP and the Congress.

She first walked out of the Vajpayee government to protest the petrol price hike. Then, in the wake of the Tehelka controversy, she deserted the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre and formed a coalition with the Congress for the 2001 West Bengal assembly elections. When this attempt to oust the ruling Left Front failed, she returned to the NDA in just six months.

The two parties again formally parted ways when the Trinamool forged an alliance with the Congress during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, criticising Banerjee for her alleged nexus with the Maoists, said: “It is unfortunate to see that West Bengal, which once was the most prosperous state in the country, has on one hand the Marxists while on the other, there are those who support the Maoists.”