Sainthia (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, May 6, alleged that the BJP is preparing a blueprint of lies to win the Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing an election meeting at Santhia in Birbhum district in support of TMC’s Birbhum candidate, sitting MP Satabdi Roy, Banerjee accused the BJP of having two top national level leaders who are “looting the whole country but defaming Bengal to hide their sins.”
“The BJP is chalking out a blueprint to win polls by spreading lies. Will you vote for a riot plotter PM?” the TMC supremo said.
Accusing the BJP of weaving a false narrative about Sandeshkhali, Banerjee said, “You (BJP) have heaped disrespect, indignity to crores of mothers and sisters of Bengal. You offered them money to level charges. You should be ashamed of such an act.”
The BJP does not know that money is not important for a woman but self respect is, she said.
Banerjee alleged that the Narendra Modi government was spending crores of rupees on advertisements in print and digital media but withholding money for Bengal’s poor.
“Rs 1.74 lakh crore dues for Bengal have not been paid by the Centre. But Modi talks tall about giving free ration to the poor but he has not been paying us a single paisa. It was the TMC which spent Rs 32,000 crore for giving free rations to the poor but Modi only believes in taking credit,” she said.
The chief minister said IPS officers, working in West Bengal but hailing from other states, are being pressured by their respective BJP-ruled governments to support saffron party candidates but they will not bow down to such intimidation.
Banerjee said the Deucha Panchami coal block in Birbhum district will give one lakh employment.
“At an investment of Rs 35,000 crore, this will be the world’s second biggest coal block. Six states did not show interest and then we came forward,” she said.
Banerjee said 1,422 land owners, who gave land for the project, have been given jobs as junior constable and group c employees.
“The project, once functional, will serve the electricity needs of the state for the next 100 years. We can even sell power outside,” she said.
At a second rally in Bardhaman-Durgapur Lok Sabha seat, Banerjee accused the Centre of not doing its bit to rehabilitate the families affected by regular subsidence of land at Raniganj-Asansol coal belt in Paschim Bardhaman district.
“The Centre has not come forward to help rehabilitate these thousands of families whose houses were damaged due to cave-in of land around some coal mines. We have taken steps to rehabilitate 29,000 families,” she said.
Referring to the BJP candidate from Asansol, S S Ahluwalia, she said, “Why did you run away from Darjeeling, from where you had been elected in 2014? Why did you leave Bardhaman-Durgapur again after winning from there in 2019?”
Without elaborating, she said, “Your party doesn’t re-nominate you from the same seat twice. Is it because of certain deeds by you?”
She also took a jibe at the BJP candidate from Bardhaman-Asansol Dilip Ghosh wondering why he had to be “shunted from old seat Midnapore to Bardhaman-Asansol by his party.”
Banerjee said while she must praise familiarity of Ahluwalia, a Sikh by faith, with the Bengali language and “his attempts to be well versed with local customs,” she asked whether he would support the ‘Khalistani’ slur levelled to a Sikh IPS officer by a senior leader of BJP recently.
In February, IPS officer Jaspreet Singh had claimed that Suvendu Adhikari, leader of the opposition in the state assembly, had called him “Khalistani” after being halted by the police while going to Sandeshkhali.
“BJP leaders know only the language of hatred . They brand Muslims as Pakistanis, Sikhs as Khalistanis. They want to drive out bona fide lower caste citizens and minorities from the country in the name of CAA and NRC. They want to enforce uniform civil code. The BJP cannot even touch Mamata Banerjee’s hair. I will remain in Bengal till my last breath and the TMC will fight the agenda of BJP till last breath,” she said.
