Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday launched a veiled attack on the saffron camp and the Centre while paying tributes to Mahatma Gandhi, urging people to take the pledge of renewing Gandhi’s movement for a united India ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.

Speaking at the launch of the Bengal government’s celebrations of Gandhi’s sesquicentennial birth anniversary, the chief minister — without taking names — referred to rising fuel prices, demonetisation and divisive forces to underscore the relevance of the icon’s vision for the nation.

“Let us take this pledge, that we will do everything possible to uphold the unity of our country and defeat communal forces that seek to divide…. Ours will be a land without discrimination on the basis of religion, caste or gender,” the Trinamul chief said.

She announced plans for a “Dandi March” on October 2 next year, hoping it would be attended by lakhs. The route will be announced later.

“From the relentless surge in petrol prices to the body blow of demonetisation, which the common man is yet to recover from, there have been many things that have gone wrong in the recent past. We must vow to turn things around,” Mamata said.

Sources in her party said her message was aimed at the BJP-RSS and the Narendra Modi government and her repeated stress on 2019 — also the sesquicentennial year of Gandhi’s birth — was a reference to the Lok Sabha polls.

“She was not going to take names and overtly politicise her speech at such an event, but she made it amply clear that she was going after the saffron brigade and its government,” said a Trinamul leader.

“The march she announced is her plan for a massive victory celebration if the BJP is ousted from the Centre,” the leader added.

In her 25-minute address, Mamata underscored the need for understanding what Gandhi stood for.

Sources said this was a direct reference to the Modi government’s attempts at “appropriating” Gandhi and other icons of India’s struggle for Independence, although they were associated with the Congress.

“If someone now claims to love Gandhiji, they should first learn to abide by his principles…. Making lofty statements on social media, claiming to be his torchbearer, does not make one a follower of Gandhiji. A true follower will not act against the very things he stood for, like communal amity and humanism.”

In what sources in her party claimed was a reference to Modi, Mamata said a true leader must learn from Gandhiji and his conduct. “A true neta (leader) is a person who takes everyone along.”

At the event outside Gandhi Bhavan in Calcutta’s Beleghata — to be restored by the state government along with a new museum for Rs 3.5 crore — Mamata laid the foundation of a Mahatma Gandhi University in East Midnapore.