'Khela Hobe in 2024...' Mamata Banerjee says Nitish Kumar, Hemant to be in her side against BJP

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that she and her counterparts in neighbouring Bihar and Jharkhand will work together with several other opposition parties across the country to dethrone the Bharatiya Janata Party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

During a party programme, the Trinamool Congress supremo claimed that the BJP would face a rout due to its arrogance and people's anger.

"In 2024, Nitish Kumar, Hemant Soren, I and many others will join forces. The opposition will unite to overthrow the BJP. We'll all be on one side and the BJP on the other. The BJP's arrogance of winning 300 seats will be its undoing." She stated that there will be 'Khela Hobe' in 2024.

'Khela Hobe' (the game is on) had been the TMC's battle cry during the high-octane Assembly elections last year, in which the party defeated the BJP to return to power for the third time in a row.

Banerjee claimed that the recent arrest of Jharkhand MLAs with large sums of cash by Bengal police halted horse trading in the neighbouring state and prevented the Hemant Soren government from collapsing.

Three Jharkhand Congress MLAs were arrested on July 30 after their vehicle was stopped in Panchla, West Bengal's Howrah district and nearly Rs 49 lakh in cash was discovered in the car. They claimed the funds were intended to purchase sarees for an Adivasi festival in their state.

The Congress, which is part of the JMM-led government in Jharkhand, has claimed that the BJP is attempting to destabilise the government by offering Rs 10 crore each and ministerial berths to MLAs.

Banerjee said that the BJP believes it can threaten us with the CBI and ED. She claims that the more they pursue such tricks, the closer they will be to defeat in the Panchayat elections next year and the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

Following the detention of senior party officials Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal by Central authorities in various cases, she accused the opposition, particularly the BJP, and a portion of the media of launching a vicious campaign against her and her party's leaders.

(With inputs from PTI)

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• BJP
• Mamata Banerjee
• TMC
• West Bengal