Left Front nearing its end: Mamata Banerjee

July 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said her ministry would look at providing infrastructure and land for setting up Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). "We might even look at building IITs in the future," Banerjee told the Lok Sabha in a discussion on the railway budget.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday taunted the Left for calling her rail budget a "manifesto" for the West Bengal assembly polls of 2011, retorting "why not in 2009"? "You asked me a political question and I gave you a political answer," she told reporters after presenting the rail budget. Asked about Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Basudeb Acharya's comment that the rail budget she presented in parliament was a "manifesto for the 2011 elections in West Bengal", Banerjee said she was ready to face elections this very year.

June 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday said the whole Lalgarh incident was stage-managed by the ruling Left Front, and asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to side with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). "They (CPI-M) have created Maoists in the country and now they are using it to their own end to regain their lost ground," Banerjee told reporters here.

June 21st, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee Sunday asked the central government to declare three West Bengal districts of West Mindapore, Bankura and Purulia as disturbed area and initiate measures for restoring peace and giving relief to people. Speaking at a party programme here, Banerjee said opposition parties and the masses did not have faith in the state's Left Front government.

May 19th, 2009 KOLKATA - After leaving the Left Front battered in the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is now eyeing its constituents, the Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP). Banerjee appealed to the Forward Bloc and RSP to switch sides and join her in ousting Left Front major Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) while participating in an interactive programme on Bengali television channel Star Ananda Monday night.

May 18th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Monday said all Left parties are 'not bad', in what is seen as an overture to some partners of West Bengal's ruling Left Front which has suffered major reverses in the 2009 Lok sabha polls. 'We have said the Left is not bad.

May 16th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said that the verdict in the 2009 general elections in West Bengal was a vote against the continuance of Left rule. Thanking the people of Bengal for their support and for coming out and voting "despite atrocities by the CPI(M)", she said the people had shown support for change in the state.

May 11th, 2009 KOLKATA/SHIMLA - Trinamool Congress (TMC) Chief Mamata Banerjee has expressed confidence that the Congress-led coalition will form government without Communists' support. Addressing a news conference here on Sunday, Banerjee said, "Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance will remain strong.

May 10th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Sunday said Maoist guerrillas of West Bengal were dummies planted by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to split the anti-Left votes in the state. 'The so-called Maoists are nothing but dummy organisations of the CPI-M in the state.

April 22nd, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Wednesday filed her nomination papers from the Kolkata-South constituency in West Bengal for the Lok Sabha elections. Mamata was accompanied by senior Trinamool leaders Partha Chattopadhyay, Kalyan Banerjee, Sovan Deb Chattapadhyay and nearly 300-odd supporters.

April 22nd, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee filed her nomination for the South Kolkata parliamentary constituency on Wednesday. Her main CPI (M) opponent, Rabin Deb also filed his nomination today.

April 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It was an unusual sight. Residents of South Kolkata were startled to find hundreds of Mamata Banerjees walking in a procession, canvassing for votes for the Trinamool Congress chief.

April 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It was a rare occasion when 'didi' saw something good in the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front in West Bengal. 'The Left Front ran the state more or less properly from 1977 till 1984 or 1987.

March 27th, 2009 KOLKATA - Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Friday charged her former ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with having put up candidates in all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in order to help the state's ruling Left Front. Banerjee also accused the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) of having blackmailed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre every now and then for enjoying the loaves of office during the time it provided outside support.

March 13th, 2009 KOLKATA - Happy over the seat adjustment with the Congress Party in West Bengal for the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee today took the poll fervor one step ahead by appealing to all regional parties across the country to forsake the CPI (M) and not join the purported Third Front. Banerjee said the CPI (M) had a 32-year history of misrule and bloodshed in West Bengal and all those regional parties and friends of friends who had supported the movement of the farmers in Nandigram should take cognizance of this fact before joining hands with the Left Front.