West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday that she had told Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former president Sonia Gandhi that their move against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra was wrong.
Speaking to a TV channel, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo criticised the parties which went ahead on an impeachment notice Justice Misra.
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“I told Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi not to go for impeachment. I can’t criticise the judge but can criticise the judgment,” she said highlighting why her party didn’t support the notice.
“The Congress was wrong to give impeachment notice against the CJI. The Congress wanted us to support it. But we did not,” she said in the interview.
Banerjee also pointed out that she left the Congress to form Trinamool Congress in January 1998.
The TMC chief, who is angling for a third front of various parties to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, underlined the need to form a federal front.
“Congress won’t be able to fight Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So all states must come together for a united front,” she said, adding that such an alliance is needed in a democracy.
“The Congress has its limitations. It has to accept it,” she said, adding that it is for the grand old party to decide whether it will join the federal front and agree to the “one-on-one formula”.
Expressing confidence in her party’s victory, Banerjee said that the BJP won’t be able to win the 2019 elections because of wrong moves such as GST and demonetisation and the game of communal politics it plays.
On Monday, vice-President and Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu rejected the impeachment notice by seven Opposition parties against the CJI citing lack of substantial merit in it.
Read More: Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu rejects impeachment notice against CJI
Leaders of opposition parties had on Friday met Naidu and handed over the notice of impeachment against the CJI bearing signatures of 64 MPs and seven former members, who recently retired.
The opposition parties, led by the Congress, initiated the unprecedented step to impeach the CJI by moving the notice levelling charges against him.