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Don't take us for granted, Panja warns BJP

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Trinamul Congress politician Ajit Panja has warned that "nobody" should take his party for granted.

Speaking to Rediff On The NeT, Panja asserted that the breakaway Congress faction would never compromise on its policies and programmes.

He did not agree that his party had scarcely a role to play after refusing to actively participate in the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He said his party was acting as a watchdog. "The Trinamul Congress has been on its toes and made its displeasure clear whenever the saffron party has seemed to go astray," he said.

"The Trinamul Congress is an independent party with its own policies and programmes. Its policies are markedly pro-poor. That is why we have been agitating against the recent price rise," he argued.

The former Union minister said party chief Mamata Banerjee was steadfast in her resolve to fight the price rise. That was why he had warned the BJP that unless it took steps to ensure that prices of essential commodities came down, Banerjee would pull out of the coalition co-ordination committee.

Panja denied that Banerjee's announcement was a gimmick. He said his party's "spectacular rise" owed to its commitment to the people, especially the poor.

In West Bengal, Panja contended that the Trinamul Congress was continuing its struggle against the "anti-people" and "despotic" rule of the Marxist-led government of Chief Minister Jyoti Basu.

He underscored that it was because of his party's popularity that the state administration had again launched a brutal attack on Banerjee who was grievously injured. But that would not stop her, he said, asserting that her resolve to fight the communists had only been strengthened.

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