TMC Leaders Arrive In Delhi To Protest Against Centre Over MGNREGA Funds, Other Schemes — Watch

TMC leaders arrived in Delhi to participate in the party's protest against the central government seeking funds for MGNREGA and other schemes.

Trinamool Congress leaders arrived in Delhi on Sunday to participate in the party's protest on October 2 and 3 against the central government seeking funds for MGNREGA and other schemes.

Speaking about the protest, TMC MP Khalilur Rahaman said that leaders of the party will take part in the protest under the leadership of Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee. "We have come here to protest against the central government; they are stopping the development of West Bengal. Under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee, we will participate in this protest," Rahaman said, as quoted by the news agency ANI.

The TMC will hold a peaceful sit-in by its MPs and state ministers at Rajghat on October 2, and a peaceful rally of the MGNREGA job card holders the next day. Both the programmes will be live streamed.

Earlier on Saturday, as many as 25 buses carrying TMC volunteers set out from Kolkata for the protest against the Centre, even as party leaders cried foul over denial of train bookings and cancellations of flights. Over 4,000 people will travel to the national capital by a convoy of buses as part of the programme, news agency PTI reported, citing TMC sources.

TMC Cannot Be Scared Off From Its Political Programmes Through Summons: Abhishek Banerjee

Ahead of the arrival of TMC leaders, party's senior leader Abhishek Banerjee asserted that the party cannot be scared off from its political programmes through summons by central agencies, as reported by PTI. The Diamond Harbour MP has been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 3 in connection with its ongoing investigation into the alleged school jobs scam.

Banerjee claimed that the Centre was trying to "crush" the movement of the poor people of West Bengal in Delhi by cancelling trains and "deploying the ED and CBI", PTI reported. "But it (the measures) will backfire," he said in a virtual address to party workers.

"It is clear that they (BJP) want to teach people of Bengal a lesson as they voted overwhelmingly in favour of TMC in the 2021 assembly polls and in subsequent by-polls. If this is BJP's way of revenge, a bigger and nastier blow awaits it in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," the TMC national general secretary asserted.