"Confused": Sitaram Yechury On Mamata Banerjee's Remarks On INDIA Bloc

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's recent remarks that she would provide "outside support" to the Opposition bloc should it come to power at the Centre after the Lok Sabha elections are highly confusing and contradictory, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Thursday.

"I am quite confused by her remarks on Trinamool Congress providing outside support to a probable INDIA bloc government. For the last few months, she has not cooperated with the INDIA bloc at all. Now she is speaking of outside support, which means she does not want to be a part of any government formed by the INDIA bloc," Mr Yechury said while speaking to mediapersons here on Thursday.

According to Mr Yechury, such confusing comments are in line with the quickly changing political stands of Mamata Banerjee.

"On one hand, she is trying to project as if she is not against the INDIA bloc because she knows that it will have a negative impact on the voters in West Bengal. At the same time, she is speaking of extending outside support," the senior Left leader said.

According to Mr Yechury, some regional parties are directly aligning with the BJP while some leaders are joining the ruling party, thus disassociating themselves from the minority.

"On the other hand, some are not directly associating with the BJP out of the fear of losing minority votes. But they are entering into clandestine deals with the BJP. This has been seen in seen in many South Indian states. Trinamool has a similar history. Mamata Banerjee had been part of the NDA government before. But this time, the Trinamool will not be able to mislead the people with its ploys," Yechury said.

The CPI-M leader also said that he is confused with Trinamool's stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

"When the CAA Bill was passed in the Parliament, Trinamool had abstained. Now Mamata Banerjee is saying that she is opposing CAA. She should make her stand clear on this issue," Mr Yechury said.
 

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