"Face of Campaign Minister everywhere when you wake up": Mamata Banerjee takes a veiled dig at PM Modi
Apr 29, 2024
Murshidabad (West Bengal) [India], April 29 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a veiled dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that every day after waking up one sees the face of the "Campaign Minister" everywhere.
"Every day when you wake up you will see the face of the Campaign Minister. You will find his image everywhere. Even when you are sleeping you will be traumatised to see their eyes. You are in fear that they will burst another bomb, eat you or bite you," the Chief Minister said while campaigning at West Bengal's Murshidabad on Monday.
Banerjee warned that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to finish all religions by making one religion fight against another.
"Do you want the country to be sold out? Do you want women to lose their dignity? Do you want Laxmir Bhandar to stop? Do you want the rights of minorities to be taken away? Do you want the existence of OBCs to be wiped out?...They are bringing a Uniform Civil Code to make one religion fight against one another and finish off all religions. This will not benefit the Hindus. They only speak lies, pay lakhs and crores on social media and buy media organizations with crores of rupees," the Chief Minister charged.
Continuing his attack against the BJP, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo said, "The country, castes, religions, Constitution are being sold off. If the BJP comes to power, no one will be independent. They will send everyone to a detention camp after conducting NRC. They will drive away everyone after implementing CAA."
Lambasting the BJP for calling the TMC "thieves", Banerjee said that they found nothing despite sending 350 teams to the state and asked them about the situation of BJP-ruled states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
"Before calling TMC thief in Bangal you should look at yourself and answer what is the situation in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra. You have sent 350 teams to West Bengal and found nothing," Banerjee said.
The Chief Minister also hit out at the the BJP for celebrating after the Calcutta High Court recently declared all appointments null and void in the selection of candidates in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided secondary and higher secondary schools through a 2016 recruitment process.
"They are saying they will burst firecrackers. They are celebrating after taking away jobs of 23,000 candidates. Don't they have any shame?...You do not have any need for money because you have got into the BJP machine just to save your money," Banerjee said.
Reminding the BJP of the Vyapam scam, another recruitment scam under the tenure of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Banerjee said, "Ask them about Madhya Pradesh's Vyapam? Those who went to investigate were killed. We want to know what is the result of that investigation."
Hitting out at the BJP for the alleged abuse of central investigative agencies by the BJP government at the Centre, the Chief Minister said, "The BJP government is a government of the agency, by the agency and for the agency. They do not take a single step without thinking of the agency..."
Murshidabad is going to polls in the upcoming third phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 7. BJP's Abu Taher Khan defeated Congress candidate Abu Hena by a margin of 2,26,417 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Voting in six Lok Sabha constituencies in Bengal was held in the first and second phases on April 19 and April 26 respectively.
Polling for the remaining parliamentary seats will be held on May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. The counting of votes will be done on June 4.
In most of the constituencies in the state, the main fight is between the ruling Trinamool Congress and BJP.
Though the TMC is part of the INDIA bloc, it does not have a seat-sharing arrangement with the other parties in the alliance, like Congress and the Left parties in the state.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the TMC won 34 seats in the state, while the BJP had to settle for just 2 seats. The CPI (M) won 2 seats, while the Congress bagged 4.
However, the BJP came up with a much-improved showing in the 2019 polls, winning 18 seats against the TMC's 22. The Congress's tally dropped to just 2 seats, while the Left scored a blank.