The Trinamool Congress (TMC) will go ahead with its planned sit-in against alleged attacks on party leaders and workers, and the Railways' hawker eviction drive, despite police denying permission, party supremo Mamata Banerjee said on Monday.
She alleged that while common people and small traders live in fear, and hawkers are being evicted without a proper rehabilitation plan, the ruling BJP is using 'money and power' to engineer defections in her party.
Banerjee asserted that the departure of leaders from the party fold for personal interests would help rebuild the organisation, and the TMC would emerge stronger from the crisis.
She claimed that 12 TMC workers have been killed since the Assembly elections, and thousands of party activists have been arrested, while many others have been forced to flee their homes.
Banerjee declared the protest would go ahead regardless of official permission, stating, 'If we are not allowed to hold a dharna there, I will sit wherever I am stopped. I am ready to be arrested.'
