For its own mistakes, CPI-M will sink further: Mamata

Trinamool Congress' margin of victory in the Kolkata South Lok Sabha bypoll suggests people's continued support for the state government policies and further disintegration of Communist Party of India-Marxist, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday.

Noting that the "massive" victory in the by-election will encourage the party to work with renewed vigour, Mamata said, "The CPI-M has been sinking and will sink further as time progresses, because of its own mistakes."

Talking to reporters outside her residence, she accused the CPI-M of hatching conspiracies to "engineer political and administrative disruption and chaos in hospitals".

Banerjee said her government would firmly deal with any attempt to thwart development programmes and blamed the Left party for the problems in Darjeeling and Jangalmahal.

"They ruled the state for 34 years and never gave a thought to the welfare of 'Ma, Mati Manunsh'. We have asked them to keep quiet for ten years...We are in the government for only six months, but they are getting impatient," she said.

Referring to CPI-M candidate Ritabrata Banerjee's statement that his party had taken a lead over Trinamool in three booths in the Bhawanipur assembly segment, she said, "There were a total of 1,902 booths in the seat and in that case if there is an assembly election now, the CPI-M will be unable to win more than four seats."

Referring to the Trinamool Congress and Congress combine winning 26 seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls out of 42 seats in West Bengal, Banerjee said, "We could have won 10 more seats if we had got proper protection."

She, however, did not elaborate further. The chief minister alleged that BJP had helped CPI-M to win five seats in the 2009 general elections.

In an apparent reference to her detractors in the state Congress, Banerjee said, "Our friends fielded Independent candidates against us in the 2009 election and if they had not done so, the CPI-M would not have secured whatever seats it had got."

She said the government would see an end to illegal syndicates and the 'promoter raj', and would not allow "infiltration" into Trinamool Congress from other parties.