KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday said its chief Mamata Banerjee has written to non-Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, flagging the BJP's 'assault' on democracy and alleging the Centre-state relations was at its worst since independence.

In her letter Banerjee which was released by the TMC on Wednesday, Banerjee says, "I am writing this letter to you, and to several leaders of non-BJP parties, to convey my serious concerns over a series of assaults by the BJP and its government at the Centre on democracy and constitutional federalism in India." 

Banerjee's letter is being seen as an attempt to portray her as a rallying point for all parties opposed to the BJP which has mounted an aggressive campaign to dislodge her from power in West Bengal after ruling for two decades after decimating the Left Front which ruled for over three decades. The Left Front has now joined hands with Congress to challenge both TMC  and the BJP.

Her three-page letter has been addressed to Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham’s M K Stalin, Samajwadi Party's Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Hemant Soren, Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal, Biju Janata Dal’s Naveen Patnaik, YSR Congress' Jagan Reddy, National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, Peoples Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti and CPI(ML)'s Dipankar Bhattacharya.

She also said in her letter that despite losing to the Aam Aadmi Party in both 2014 and 2019, the BJP was 'unwilling to accept the people's mandate. "The BJP has chosen to govern Delhi by making the chief minister subservient to the Lt Governor. The National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act is a direct attack on the federal structure of the Indian Republic, as enshrined in the Constitution. It also makes a mockery of the letter and spirit of democracy since it disempowers the people of the national capital. You will also agree that what the BJP has done in Delhi is not an exception, but is increasingly become a rule," she said.

She also alleged that the BJP government has been 'brazenly and vindictively misusing' the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED)and other institutions against leaders and functionaries of non-BJP parties for its own partisan political ends.

Citing the examples of both West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where Assembly elections are now underway, she accused the government of "unleashing" the ED to conduct raids on functionaries of the TMC and DMK. 

The chief minister, who is fighting the assembly election in West Bengal from the Nandigram seat which goes to polls on April 1, also accused the government of "deliberately" withholding transfer of funds to state governments, especially those ruled by non-BJP parties.