West Bengal Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday staged an overnight sit-in in front of Dr BR Ambedkar’s statue on Kolkata’s Red Road to protest Centre’s alleged “discrimination” against the TMC-ruled state.

Accompanied by top leaders, including Firhad Hakim and Aroop Biswas—and workers of her Trinamool Congress (TMC), Banerjee sat overnight in front the Dalit icon’s bust in the heart of Kolkata from Wednesday noon to protest the BJP-led Centre’s stoppage” of funds to West Bengal for MGNREGA and other schemes of the housing and public works departments.

Reverting her earlier stance on staying equidistant from the BJP and the Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, the TMC supremo on Wednesday, urged political parties across the country to form a united front for ousting the saffron party in next year’s national elections.

Mamata Banerjee termed the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as a fight between citizens of India versus the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and urged people, irrespective of region or religion, to unite and defeat the right-wing party and save India’s poor.

Dubbing the BJP as ‘Dushasana’ and ‘Duryodhana’ – the two villains from the Hindu epic ‘Mahabharata’, Banerjee urged all political parties in India to unify and oust the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP regime at the Centre.

She claimed that ‘Duryodhana’ BJP must be ousted to “save” India’s common man and the country’s democracy.

A senior officer of the Kolkata Police said that heavy security has been deployed in and around the venue where the West Bengal CM is currently staging her 30-hour sit-in protest which is likely to end by late Thursday evening.

After choosing to remain aloof from the BJP-Congress tussle, Mamata Banerjee participated in the grand old party’s strategy meet to protest Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament as the Opposition presented a united front.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is all geared up to step up its ‘poster war’ with the BJP to another level as the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led party readies to launch posters calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a nationwide campaign in eleven languages.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai and senior AAP leader said that the Kejriwal-led party will display anti-PM Modi posters in states across the country on March 30, adding that all state units of the AAP have been directed to paste posters—which have been printed in 11 languages— in their respective states.

Last week, the BJP-AAP ‘poster war’ escalated after the saffron party-sponsored posters calling for the removal of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal were seen plastered in parts of the national capital, days after similar posters were posted by “anonymous” persons targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Tuesday last, the posters calling for the removal of PM Modi to “save the country” were removed during a large-scale crackdown by the Delhi Police, which also led to the arrest of six accused, including two printing press owners.

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The arrested printing press owners allegedly told the police that they had received an order to print 50,000 “Modi hatao, desh bachao” posters.

Police said the arrests were made for defacing public property and under the law, the posters were required to carry the name of the printing press. They said that only 36 cases out of 138 filed were for the anti-Modi posters.

In retaliation, BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa put up anti-Kejriwal posters with the slogan ‘Arvind Kejriwal ko hatao, Dilli Bachao (Remove Arvind Kejriwal, Save Delhi’ with a header calling the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Corrupt, Dishonest and Dictator, across the national capital on March 23—two days after the Delhi Police’s crackdown on anti-Modi posters which read ‘Modi hatao, desh bachao (remove Modi, save the country).’

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After Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a jibe at the Opposition unity on Tuesday calling their Opposition unity a coming together of the corrupt, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday hit back at PM Modi. Kharge asked PM Modi to stop BJP’s image make over by portraying as Anti-Corruption crusader.

Kharge, in his Tweet, wrote and questioned who owns 20,000 Crore Rs in Adani’s Shell companies. Kharge further raked up the names of defaulters Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Vijay Mallya, Jatin Mehta who fled the country and asked if they are a part of PM Modi’s ‘Bhrashtachari Bhagao Abhiyan’.

See tweet here:

Kharge, in his second Tweet, also questioned on why the ruling BJP is accused of 40% commission in Karnataka. Kharge further upped the ante and accused the Meghalaya Government to be the most corrupt.

Congress Chief Malikarjun Kharge, in his scathing attack, raked up the issue of BJP leader being involved in Sanjivani Cooperative scam in Rajasthan, Poshan scam in MP and Naan scam in Chhattisgarh.

See tweet here:

The Congress chief also accentuated the use of ED sleuth on the Opposition and further asked how the BJP leaders are cleared off their charges after being inducted into the party.

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Kharge, in his tweet, challenged PM Modi to order a Joint Parliamentary Committee to sit on the allegations on levelled against Adani. He further wrote and urged the PM to hold a press conference in his 9 years of PM office where the the media won’t ask trivial questions.

See tweet here:

Mallikarjun Kharge’s unsparing attack on Prime Minister Modi comes a day after the PM targeted the Opposition unity amid the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha. PM Modi, in his attack on the Opposition, said that some parties have initiated Bhrashtachari Bachao Abhiyan and also dubbed the unity of Opposition as the uniting of corrupt.

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