Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee gave a clarion call to all Opposition leaders to unite and form a Front to dislodge the Modi government at the Centre in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Miss Banerjee, in her virtual address marking the Trinamul Congress’ Martyrs’ Day, told Opposition leaders who had gathered at the Constitution Club in New Delhi to listen to her: “Time is very short.  All important Opposition leaders are present here, so I will request you to talk to your respective parties and we should unitedly form a Front.”

“There is no point in bringing a doctor after the patient is dead. It will not be effective if we start uniting just few months before election. We have to start from now,” Miss Banerjee said.

She requested Mr Sharad Pawar of the NCP and Mr P Chidambaram of the Congress to arrange a meeting with all Opposition leaders at the end of July in Delhi as she would be visiting the  capital on 27 July.

Miss Banerjee declared 16 August as ‘Khela Hobe Diwas’ to set the ball rolling to oust the BJP in the 2024 Parliamentary elections. Miss Banerjee also lashed out at the Prime Minister and Union home minister for snooping on Opposition leaders, judges, bureaucrats and journalists by using Pegasus spyware and appealed to the Supreme Court to start suo-motu case against the Centre for infringing on the fundamental rights by snooping on the phone calls of individuals. Miss Banerjee said under BJP, democracy is in peril.

“I can’t speak to NCP leader Sharad Pawarji, Chidambaram or other opposition leaders or chief ministers because we are being snooped and spied on by the Centre,” she said. She said that  her phone, along with those of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and poll strategist Prashant Kishor, was tapped, and showed viewers her personal phone which she has covered the camera lenses and speakers with tape to conteract the Pegasus spyware.

She also thanked the people of Bengal for choosing Trinamul Congress over BJP. She said that BJP leaders used law enforcement agencies, muscle and money power and Pegasus but yet Trinamul Congress got the people’s mandate. She said that BJP party members have become NHRC members while Election Commission during Assembly poll became just like BJP’s Party Office.

BJP is destroying federalism but wants a surveillance state. They are bulldozing democracy every day, she said. She also attacked the Centre for failing to control second wave of Covid-19. She said more than four lakh people died in India during the second wave as there were no vaccines and no medicines.