INDIA bloc PM candidate will be decided after 2024 polls: Mamata Banerjee

The Prime Ministerial candidate for INDIA Bloc will be decided post the completion of 2024 general elections, said West Bengal chief minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee, on Monday.

On BJP's assertion that PM Modi will return for a third term, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee said that 2024 is not a done deal.

The TMC supremo on Sunday arrived in Delhi on a four-day visit, during which she is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, her party's MPs and attend a meeting of the opposition INDIA bloc. Before leaving Kolkata, she told reporters at the airport there that she will meet the PM to seek the release of central funds due to West Bengal.


"They (the Centre) have stopped our funds and are not willing to release our dues. Bengal is the only state whose funds have been withheld," PTI quoted the chief minister as saying.

"We will raise our voice against this and we are raising our voice against this. This will be a part (of the meeting with the PM). This is why I am going to Delhi," she said.

She also expressed concern over the December 13 Parliament security breach and said it was a "serious matter".

In the national capital, Banerjee will hold a meeting with Trinamool Congress (TMC) MPs on Monday, and on Tuesday, she will participate in the meeting of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

Banerjee is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Modi at 11 am on December 20 along with some TMC MPs over the issue of pending central funds of West Bengal.

On the Parliament security breach, the chief minister said in Kolkata that "there was a great lapse... the Union home minister has already admitted that". "Let them investigate it," Banerjee said

In a major security breach on the anniversary of the 2001 Parliament terror attack, two men jumped into the Lok Sabha chamber from the public gallery during the Zero Hour, released yellow-coloured smoke from canisters and raised slogans, before being overpowered by MPs.

Chief Minister Banerjee also claimed that members of the opposition who raised their voice over the breach issue were suspended. "Derek O'Brien (TMC MP), and 14 other opposition MPs were suspended from Parliament for this," she said.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Saturday had rejected suggestions that the suspension of 13 opposition members was linked to their protests over the security breach issue. They were suspended from the House "purely to uphold" its sanctity, he had said.

He had said that "at the time of the inauguration of the new building of our Parliament, we had resolved that we will refrain from bringing placards inside the House and we will not create ruckus in the Well of the House".