Kolkata:
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that the Manmohan Singh government would fall within two to six months, and added that even a miracle could not save the regime which was now on a ventilator.
"This government will last another two to six months maximum. The Lok Sabha polls will be held after that. If I have even the slightest understanding of politics, then my prediction will come true," Ms Banerjee told a Bengali newspaper.
Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress broke away from the United Progressive Alliance-II in September to protest the union government's decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in multi-brand retail, cap the supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders per household to six and raise diesel prices.
The Trinamool supremo said her immediate goal is to rally all regional parties together against the UPA government which was trying to rule the country like its own fief. She said she was confident that the regional parties would form the next government after the general elections.
Comparing the UPA to a patient on his death bed, the Trinamool supremo said, "It is now brain-dead and on ventilator. Everybody knows the patient is dead. Only somebody has to remove the tube."
When told that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati are supporting the government from outside, Ms Banerjee said: "Nobody's support, even a miracle, can save the government."
Justifying her decision to leave the Congress-led UPA, she said: "The Congress is now a rotten snail (indicating something which is decaying yet dangerous). If you keep it, you will only end up hurting yourself."
Ms Banerjee also rubbished speculations that with her Trinamool now out of the UPA, the work on the ongoing railway projects which she had conceived for West Bengal will be affected. "This government will not last long. So, how can it stall our projects?"
"This government will last another two to six months maximum. The Lok Sabha polls will be held after that. If I have even the slightest understanding of politics, then my prediction will come true," Ms Banerjee told a Bengali newspaper.
Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress broke away from the United Progressive Alliance-II in September to protest the union government's decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment or FDI in multi-brand retail, cap the supply of subsidised cooking gas cylinders per household to six and raise diesel prices.
The Trinamool supremo said her immediate goal is to rally all regional parties together against the UPA government which was trying to rule the country like its own fief. She said she was confident that the regional parties would form the next government after the general elections.
Comparing the UPA to a patient on his death bed, the Trinamool supremo said, "It is now brain-dead and on ventilator. Everybody knows the patient is dead. Only somebody has to remove the tube."
When told that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party president Mayawati are supporting the government from outside, Ms Banerjee said: "Nobody's support, even a miracle, can save the government."
Justifying her decision to leave the Congress-led UPA, she said: "The Congress is now a rotten snail (indicating something which is decaying yet dangerous). If you keep it, you will only end up hurting yourself."
Ms Banerjee also rubbished speculations that with her Trinamool now out of the UPA, the work on the ongoing railway projects which she had conceived for West Bengal will be affected. "This government will not last long. So, how can it stall our projects?"
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