News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • COVID is Mamata’s new weapon against BJP as the Bengal reports nearly 7000 new cases

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA:  The TMC has found a new weapon to attack BJP. It’s the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the saffron party of bringing in outsiders for election work, which she claims, has caused a surge in numbers.

    Addressing a rally at Nabadwip in Nadia on Friday, Mamata said: “Do not spread coronavirus in Bengal Narendra Modiji. I am repeatedly saying this. You can visit Bengal and address rallies. But your party is bringing in people from Gujarat and Rajasthan for erecting stages and doing other works for BJP rallies. These outsiders are spreading Covid in Bengal,” she lashed out.

    Mamata Banerjee at a public meetingin North 24 Parganas districtClaiming that the pandemic scenario in Bengal was under control, the CM continued lambasting the BJP. “We kept cases under control. But since the outsiders started stepping in, cases are rising alarmingly.’’

    Without naming BJP’s heavyweights visiting Bengal, Mamata said: “The situation was alright for five-six months. Modiji could have saved all by giving vaccines. But he did not do that. Now they are bringing thousands of people in Bengal who are going back after spreading the virus.”

    Mamata requested the Election Commission to make Covid-19 tests mandatory for outsiders.

    UP CM Yogi Adityanath, who visited the state on several occasions and addressed rallies, tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday.

    Bengal recorded its highest single-day spike of 6,769 cases in the last 24 hours.

    Mamata used the ‘outsider’ jibe on several occasions in the past while attacking BJP. She labelled the saffron camp a party of outsiders who do not understand Bengal’s culture. As the state is witnessing a fierce electoral battle, she has given a new twist to the narrative by adding the Covid-19 angle.

    Referring to her promise to give free Covid vaccines, Mamata accused the Centre of doing politics.

    “I wanted free vaccination for all. But the Centre is not giving us adequate doses. BJP is doing politics over this which is shameful,” she said.

    Local labourers and decorators can be engaged for the purpose after necessary COVID-19 tests, Banerjee said.

    At another meeting at Jagatdal, the TMC supremo said that COVID test of those coming from outside, the decorators and workers should be made mandatory.

    She claimed that the Covid situation in states like Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat was far worse than Bengal.

    “In UP they (the BJP government of that state) have built walls around cremation sites to secretly burn bodies. The situation in Gujarat is alarming. A Bengali lady professor died there of coronavirus due to lack of treatment.”

    She also alleged that untrained non-medical persons were administering “so-called vaccines from BJP party offices in Gujarat”.

    Blaming the BJP of trying to stop her from canvassing by “targeting her leg”, Banerjee said she has been able to overcome the situation with the blessings of the people.

    “The injury has healed 75 per cent,” she said.

    Hitting out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the TMC supremo said he is repeatedly telling in meetings that Durga Puja, Saraswati Puja are not allowed in West Bengal.

    “This is nothing but a bunch of lies”.

    “And what kind of lies! We don’t allow Durga puja, Kali puja, Saraswati puja, Chhat Puja in Bengal? What does he know about our pujas, our culture? Do we sit at home wearing new clothes on Durga puja days and don’t go to pandals to offer pushpanjali? “Don’t we hold Lakshmi puja and Saraswati puja at almost every home? Don’t we celebrate Chhat puja? Despite being ignorant about Bengal, Amit Shah is repeatedly saying the same thing at every meeting! Will he quit politics if he is proved wrong?,” Banerjee asked.

    BJP is following the ‘Goebbels theory’ to establish a falsehood by repeating it every day.

    “But people of the state know the real situation,” she asserted.

    She accused BJP of plotting to delete names of bonafide citizens, who had settled in the country decades ago.

    “Those who came to the country till March 1971 are citizens. Why will they have to prove their citizenship? Those refugees who have been given land deeds for settling on private or government lands are citizens and cannot be sent to detention camps by BJP.

    “Cast your vote and ensure that they (BJP) are not elected and cannot delete your names in any National Population Register exercise,” she said.

    Addressing the Matua community, whose members form a significant chunk of the electorate in the border areas of North 24 Parganas district, she said “Only Trinamool Congress had been on your side for three decades. We had conferred the Bangabibhusan award to Baroma (Binapani Devi, the matriarch of the community), we had supervised all her treatment. Where were those who have suddenly surfaced at Thakurnagar now? “From building higher educational institutions to rail stations and development of the Matua community headquarters at Thakurnagar, from constituting a board to improve the condition of Namasudras our (TMC) government took up many measures to improve your (Matua community’s) condition. BJP only makes empty promises”.

    At another meeting at Noapara, Banerjee claimed that her car had been chased by saffron party workers at Bhatpara, an area which is the stronghold of its leader Arjun Singh, in 2019 and that TMC office had been forcibly painted saffron so that BJP could lay claim to them.

    “I stood against that terror and we have to resist BJP terror this time,” she added.

    The COVID-19 tally in West Bengal mounted to 6,43,795 on Friday after the highest single-day spike of 6,910 new cases were reported in the state, the health department said.

    On Friday the Revolutionary Socialist Party candidate for Jangipur assembly constituency, Pradip Kumar Nandi who tested positive for COVID-19 died in a Berhampore hospital, health department officials confirmed.

    The toll rose to 10,506 with 26 deaths registered in the state in the last 24 hours, it said in a bulletin.

    The city accounted for the highest single-day jump of 1,844 new cases and nine deaths, the bulletin said.

    Of the rest 17, seven deaths were reported in North 24 Parganas, three each in Howrah and Malda, two in Murshidabad and one death each in Purba Medinipur and Nadia districts, it said.

    Sixteen out of the 26 deaths were due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental.

    North 24 Parganas district accounted for 1,592 new cases, while Howrah reported 420 cases, the bulletin said.

    At least 2,818 recoveries were reported in the state and the discharge rate continued to slip and was 91.99 per cent.

    Till Friday, 5,92,242 people have recovered from the disease in the state.

    Since Thursday 40,153 samples have been tested in West Bengal taking the total number of such clinical examinations to 97,15,115, the bulletin said.

    Nandi’s death took the number of candidates who died due to the disease to two, they said.

    Nandi (73), who tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, was in home isolation and was rushed to the hospital on Thursday night after his condition deteriorated, the official said.

    Nandi had certain comorbidities and he passed away at around 6PM, he added.

    On Thursday Congress candidate for Samsherganj constituency in Murshidabad district, Rezaul Haque, who too had tested positive for COVID19, passed away at a city hospital.

    Following Nandi’s death, the Election Commission declared polling at Jangipur assembly constituency void, an official said.

    Meanwhile, owing to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, hospitals in the city have decided to postpone planned surgeries for at least next two weeks, an official of the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCREC) said.

    The decision was taken at a meeting held between WBCREC and private hospitals on Friday.

    WBCREC chairman Justice (retired) Ashim Kumar Banerjee said that requests to increase COVID-19 hospitals by at least 30 per cent was made to the authorities of the medical establishments.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Bengal polls: Long schedule, lack of fresh issues force parties to rekindle NRC debate

    Express News Service
    KOLKATA: In the seemingly endless election campaign trail in West Bengal, issues often keep resurfacing. It’s understandable. When the election battle is held over eight phases and four weeks, it becomes difficult for political parties to discover new issues on a daily basis. 

    As a result, things keep circling in a loop. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) is one such point.

    Time and again, Trinamool Congress and BJP have traded barbs over this. Ahead of the fifth phase of polling on Saturday, it was no different as Union Home Minister Amit Shah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee engaged in a war of words over NRC.

    At a rally in Nabadwip, the birthplace of Sree Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Mamata said if BJP wrests power in the state, it will send refugees to detention camps and cited the example of Assam.

    In response, Shah accused her of depriving refugees of citizenship by opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). He was addressing a rally in Tehatta, which is in the same district.

    “Do not trust them. In Assam, the BJP-led government has started serving notices to refugees, who were left out of the final list of NRC, asking them to explain why they should not be evicted. The Assam government is also serving notices to send refugees to detention camps. If they come to power in Bengal, they will follow the similar route and send refugees to detention camps,” said Mamata, reiterating that she would allow neither NRC nor  CAA in Bengal if she wins this electoral battle.

    Shah, who had earlier said in north Bengal that there are no plans of implementing NRC right now, said Mamata was misleading the refugees. 

    “CAA is aimed to give citizenship to refugees who had to migrate from Bangladesh because of religious persecution. Mamata didi is opposing it. She is against refugees’ citizenship. She is depriving them of their rights,” Shah told the gathering in Tehatta, which has a sizable population of Hindu refugees.

    Amit Malviya, BJP’s IT Cell head and co-observer for Bengal, accused Mamata of spreading fear over the issue of NRC despite the Union Home Minister’s announcement that there is no plan to implement it. 

    He also claimed by releasing an audio tape that Mamata has been instructing her party candidates to spread fear over the contentious issue.

    “In the audio tape, she is heard telling her candidate at Sitalkuchi, where four persons were killed in Central paramilitary firing, to spread fear over NRC. She also directed him to lodge an FIR in connection with the firing instead of allowing the families of the deceased to lodge a formal complaint. She is also heard telling the candidate to engage professional lawyers to lodge the complaint. This is evidence showing that the chief minister is doing politics over dead bodies,” alleged Malviya.

  • Mamata’s purported conversation with Trinamool nominee after Sitalkuchi firing stirs row

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: A controversy erupted on Friday after the BJP released a purported audio clip in which West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is heard telling the Trinamool Congress nominee of Sitalkuchi to hold rallies with bodies of the four persons killed in CISF firing during polling on April 10.

    Claiming that such a conversation never took place, the TMC described the audio clip as “bogus” and wondered whether the Centre is tapping a chief ministers phone.

    PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of the audio clip which was released on the eve of the fifth phase of the polls.

    Releasing excerpts of the telephonic conversation between Banerjee and Partha Pratim Ray, the TMC candidate of the Sitalkuchi seat, the BJP’s IT Cell chief Amit Malviya claimed that the “chief minister is trying to instigate riots by asking her party leaders to take out rallies with bodies”.

    “She is heard asking her party candidate to frame the case in such a way that both the superintendent of police (of Cooch Behar) and other central forces personnel can be framed. Is this expected from a chief minister? She is trying to instil a sense of fear just for minority votes,” he said.

    BJP president JP Nadda alleged that the ruling party of the state signifies the culture of vultures.

    “TMC signifies VULTURE CULTURE- of feasting on death for petty political gains. TMC should be ashamed of themselves,” Nadda said in a tweet.

    Four persons were killed as central forces opened fire allegedly after coming under attack from locals, who “attempted to snatch their rifles”, near a booth in Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district during the fourth phase of polling.

    According to BJP sources, the saffron party has decided to move the Election Commission over the audio clip.

    In the purported audio clip, Banerjee is heard instructing Ray to keep his cool till the polling is over.

    “Don’t panic. You should make arrangements for conducting a rally with the bodies the next day. And also consult a lawyer and file a police complaint so that neither the SP nor IC can escape,” she is heard saying.

    The TMC’s Sitalkuchi candidate termed the audio clip as “bogus”.

    “Such a conversation never took place. This audio clip is totally bogus. The BJP is just trying to confuse the people before the fifth phase of polling,” he said.

    TMC spokesperson Derek O’ Brien and his Rajya Sabha colleague Sukendu Sekhar Roy asked the BJP not to play mind games with the people of the state.

    “Did the Centre tap the private phone conversations of a sitting CM? We condemn this blatant breach of privacy and illegitimate usage of state machinery for petty political agenda,” Roy said at a late-night press conference.

    “We will trounce BJP in this election. Don’t play mind games with the people of Bengal!” O’Brien said.

    Earlier, Banerjee has described the firing as genocide by central forces and termed it as a conspiracy by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    Out of the eight-phase assembly elections in the state, four phases have been completed and the remaining four are scheduled to be held between April 17 and 29.

  • TMC seeks clubbing of last three phases of Bengal polls to arrest COVID surge, BJP against idea

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Ruling Trinamool Congress Friday sought clubbing of the last three phases of assembly elections after the fifth round on Saturday considering alarming COVID situation in West Bengal.

    After Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on the previous day mooted the idea of conducting polls for the remaining phases at one go, TMC Secretary General Partha Chatterjee sought clubbing of the last three rounds of voting into one at a meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab here.

    Emerging from an all-party meeting called by the CEO, Chatterjee said that in order to save the lives of people and to control COVID-19 infections while allowing candidates ample time for campaigning, a balance has to be drawn by the Election Commission.

    “We have told the commission that in order to give the people proper healthcare facilities amid COVID situation, the last three phases may be clubbed into one while ensuring that the democratic rights of the people are upheld,” Chatterjee told reporters.

    ALSO READ | BJP responsible for COVID surge in Bengal, will urge EC to prevent entry of outsiders during campaigning: Mamata

    He said that all stakeholders, including the candidates, political parties and the general public, have a role to play in controlling the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Meanwhile, the BJP expressed objection against such clubbing at the meet on the pretext that it would be disadvantageous for voters and candidates of the seats that are yet to go to polls.

    BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta, who represented the party in the meeting, said the party does not want any step that would affect the “democratic spirit”.

    “We said that our party will abide by all COVID-19 protocols put in place by the Election Commission, and urged that no steps be taken that discriminates those voting in the next phases from those who have already exercised their franchise.

    “We have not said anything about clubbing (of phases), We feel that the elections will be held in eight phases,” Dasgupta told reporters after the meeting.

    ALSO READ | Mamata reluctant to grant citizenship to Matuas, Namsudras; Rahul a ‘tourist politician’: Amit Shah

    Dasgupta said that virtual election meetings for the remaining phases are not possible as half of the eight phases have already been held.

    “A level playing field has to be maintained. We have advised the Election Commission to balance the need for a robust democratic culture with safety norms.

    “It is up to the Election Commission to tell us what exactly the political parties must do. We have assured the EC that under all circumstances, once it has laid down the procedures, the BJP will adhere to the norms faithfully.

    He said that the saffron party will provide masks to its supporters and workers at public meetings to ensure that health protocols are maintained.

    The Election Commission had Thursday dismissed the chance of holding the last three phases of assembly polls in West Bengal together, saying “(There is) no such plan of clubbing phases.”

    Asked about the rising number of infections and deaths due to COVID-19 in the state along with the rest of the country, he said that campaigning cannot be stopped, and also wondered how the rights of the contestants and the voters can be taken away.

    Assembly polls have been held for 135 constituencies in the state in four phases so far and the remaining 159 seats are slated to go to the polls in four phases between April 17 and 29.

    Counting is scheduled for May 2.

  • BJP responsible for COVID surge in Bengal, will urge EC to prevent entry of outsiders during campaigning: Mamata

    By Agencies
    NABADWIP: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday she will call upon the Election Commission to stop the BJP from bringing “outsiders” during campaigning, squarely blaming the saffron party for exacerbating the COVID-19 situation in the state.

    Banerjee, during a public meeting here in Nadia district, said the BJP brought people from “worst-hit” states like Gujarat for erecting marquees for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s poll rallies.

    ALSO READ | Mamata reluctant to grant citizenship to Matuas, Namsudras; Rahul a ‘tourist politician’: Amit Shah

    “For 5 months there was no COVID19, now they (BJP) have brought people from outside & no one is being tested. Whoever comes from outside should be tested…. People from outside are coming & spreading COVID19. When our people will die, they will blame us,” Banerjee told ANI at a rally in Noapara.

    “I will tell the EC to stop the inflow of outsiders from states like Gujarat who are responsible for the COVID-19 spread in Bengal.

    “We have nothing to say if the PM or other leaders come for campaigning. Why should the BJP bring people from worst-affected states to set up podiums and pandals for rallies,” she said.

    The Trinamool Congress boss said local labourers and decorators can be engaged for the purpose after necessary COVID-19 tests.

    Referring to her injury, the chief minister said the BJP wanted to stop her from canvassing by “targeting her leg”, but she has managed to come out triumphant.

    “They had targeted my leg, but I proved them wrong with the blessings of people. The injury has healed 75 per cent,” she said.

    Banerjee, who suffered injuries on her leg during campaigning in Nandigram on March 10, has since been seen seated on a wheelchair in rallies and roadshows.

    She said the COVID-19 surge in West Bengal could have been under check had Modi ensured vaccination for every citizen of the state.

    “The virus had become weak in the last five-six months. But, the PM did not take steps to vaccinate every citizen. He did not even respond to my suggestion for free vaccination for people of the state for political reasons.

    “On our part, we have already started free inoculation at some camps in Kolkata and other areas,” Banerjee said West Bengal on Thursday recorded the highest single- day spike of 6,769 coronavirus cases and at least 22 more fatalities.

    Urging all eligible voters to exercise their franchise on Saturday, the fifth phase of assembly elections, she alleged, “If you don’t, citing some excuses, the BJP will try to delete your name from the voter list.”

    The TMC chief also slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for the hike in LPG cyclinder prices.

    “If they have their way, BJP will take it to Rs 5,000 per cyclinder. Tell them we don’t want cash for votes, we want cooking gas for free,” she said, accusing the saffron party of distributing money among people for votes.

    Speaking about the temple town Nabadwip, Banerjee said her government has spent Rs 300 crore for the heritage spot.

    “There are two heritage towns in the state – Nabadwip and Cooch Behar. What we have done for these places, no other government had done so during their tenure,” she asserted.

    Banerjee added that a world heritage centre was also coming up in Mayapur.

    “Nabadwip and Cooch Behar will be a pilgrimage hub when the planned projects are completed, attracting lakhs of tourists and providing more employment opportunities,” the CM said.

    (With ANI and PTI inputs)

  • Bengal polls: Three TMC, one BJP candidate among five to test COVID positive ahead of fifth phase

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: At least five candidates of different parties contesting the ongoing assembly election in West Bengal have tested positive for COVID-19, a health department official said on Friday.

    Out of the five candidates who tested positive, three are from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), and one each from the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he said.

    RSP’s Jangipur candidate, 73-year-old Pradip Kumar Nandi, tested positive on Wednesday and is now in home isolation, the official said.

    BJP’s candidate for Matigara-Naxalbari seat Anandamay Barman (38), TMC’s Goalpokhar nominee Mohmmed Ghulam Rabbani, Tapan candidate Kalpana Kisku, and Jalpaiguri candidate Dr. Pradip Kumar Barma have tested COVID-19 positive, the health official said.

    According to an official at the CEO, “The candidates who tested positive must immediately stop campaigning.

    Either they should isolate themselves at their homes or get themselves hospitalised depending on severity of the infection,” he said.

    Congress nominee from Samsherganj assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Rezaul Haque, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died at a hospital here early on Thursday.

  • EC notice to BJP leader Sayantan Basu for his alleged ‘inflammatory’ remark

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission Thursday issued a notice to West Bengal BJP leader Sayantan Basu for his alleged “inflammatory” remark during a speech and asked him to explain his stand within 24 hours.

    The notice said the poll panel had received a complaint against Basu over his speech in North 24 Parganas’ Baranagar.

    “(Barely audible) l, Sayantan Basu, am here to tell you that don’t try to play too much. We will play the game of Shitalkuchi. They killed 18 years old Ananda Barman….He was the brother of the BJP’s Shakti Pramukh. We did not have to wait for long….(Barely audible) Four of them were shown the way to heaven.

    “There was a dialogue in the film ‘Sholay’ you know — if you kill one we will kill four of you. Shitalkuchi witnessed it — if you kill one we will kill four of you….,” the EC notice said, quoting portions of his speech.

    The Commission said his speech was found to be in violation of the model code and provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the Indian Penal Code.

  • ‘Mamata getting disturbed despite PM giving her respect’: Smriti Irani on Modi’s ‘Didi, o Didi’ slogan

    By ANI
    NORTH 24 PARGANAS: Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Smriti Irani on Wednesday lashed out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying that while she talks of ‘khela hobe’, the people of the state are saying there will be slogans for lotus.

    Addressing a public gathering in Shikarpur, Irani said: “Didi is getting disturbed on being called ‘Didi’ and is stating why PM Modi is saying ‘Didi, o Didi’. She is getting disturbed. PM Modi is giving her respect and she is insulting him. But her ‘khela’ means insulting others.”

    “Before this election, she told every person ‘khela hobe’. But she does not know that after each phase, people of Bengal are telling her ‘Didi, you are saying khela hobe, people are saying ‘poddophooler naara hobe’ (there will be slogans for the lotus),” she added.

    Lotus is the election symbol of the BJP.

    She further targeted Banerjee, saying that the party which talks of ‘Ma, Mati and Manush’ is “insulting women, bloodying the soil and handing over homes to syndicates”.

    She alleged that Mamata Banerjee came to power on the claims of bringing ‘poriborton’ (change) and ending the atrocities inflicted by the Left government but the “previous government’s goons have now turned into the goons of Trinamool Congress (TMC).”

    Irani also claimed that a video clip has emerged in Ashok Nagar where Mamata Banerjee allegedly told a TMC candidate “to stop his smuggling”.

    “This is not an ordinary election. This election is for the development of every poor person and family, the respect of every woman in Bengal,” she said.

    “Didi says’ Bangla nijer meyeke chaaye’ (Bengal wants her own daughter). I said earlier that which daughter are you talking about? What situation she and her goons had left the state in after the Amphan cyclone? Did the rice sent by the PM Modi reach the people? TMC’s goons have stolen the rice of poor people,” the Union Minister said.

    Irani said once a BJP government is formed in the state, “every TMC goon will be sent behind bars”.

    “Every vote for the TMC is an insult to women, poor people, and the state. If you want to protect the state and preserve the culture, press the lotus and give your blessings to BJP,” she added.

    The high-decibel campaigning for the fifth phase of the ongoing West Bengal Assembly elections concluded at 6 pm on Wednesday, as leaders of the political parties taking part in the high-stakes polls left no stone unturned to woo the voters of the state.

    The campaigning ended early today as the Election Commission (EC) on Saturday said the silence period for the fifth phase shall be extended to 72 hours. The decision came after violence in the fourth phase of the election in which five persons died.

  • Congress MLA Irfan Ansari performs puja at Baidyanath Dham, BJP MP demands his arrest

    By PTI
    DEOGHAR: Jharkhand’s Congress MLA Irfan Ansari on Wednesday performed puja at the famous Baidyanath Dham temple at Deoghar, considered to be the most sacred abode of Lord Shiva, creating a controversy.

    Claiming that entry of non-Hindus is not allowed in the temple, BJP MP Dr Nishikant Dubey demanded immediate arrest of Ansari.

    The MLA of Jamtara, along with his companions, entered the sanctum sanctorum of the temple and performed the puja.

    Photographs of the act were also taken.

    Ansari claimed that he has been coming to the Baidyanath Dham temple since his childhood to take the blessings of Lord Shiva.

    “Whenever elections come, I have been blessed by Baba Bhole (Lord Shiva) and I have won. Who is Nishikant Dubey to take me away from Baba?” Ansari said.

    Dubey, the MP of Godda, demanded that the states JMM-led government order arrest of Ansari and take action against the deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police of Deoghar for allowing this to happen.

    “No non-Hindu has entered the sanctum sanctorum of the Baba temple till date.

    Just as the entry of non-Muslims is forbidden in the Kaaba in Mecca, the entry of non-Hindus into the Baba temple is also forbidden,” he told a press conference.

    Kaaba is a small shrine located inside the Great Mosque in Mecca and considered by Muslims as the holiest spot on Earth.

    Dubey said that once National Confrence leader Farooq Abdullah, when he was a Union minister, came to Deoghar and bowed down to Baba with folded hands from outside, but did not enter the sanctum sanctorum.

  • ‘Bell for Mamata’s departure has already rung’: Nadda lashes out at Bengal CM

    By PTI
    JAMALPUR/ASANSOL/KOLKATA: BJP president J P Nadda Wednesday hit out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the language she used against BJP top leaders and for disrespecting the culture of Bengal and said the bell for her departure has already rung.

    Contending that the BJP is the true upholder and protector of Bengal’s culture, Nadda said that the saffron party has worked to spread the messages of great philosophers and thinkers of the state who provided direction to the people of the country.

    Nadda said that it is BJP which has been spreading the messages of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahans, Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Syama Prasad Mookerjee throughout the country.

    “Are the words used by her for Modiji (PM), Amit Shah during her campaigns and the adornments she used with my name the culture of Bengal?” he asked.

    “So it is we who are insiders, we who are the protectors of Bengals culture. You (Banerjee) have disrespected the culture of Bengal while we have given it the appropriate respect,” the BJP chief asserted while addressing a public meeting of the party at Jamlpur in Purba Bardhaman district.

    Banerjee has often called BJP a party of outsiders, meaning a party of poeple from other states.

    Nadda claimed that the chief minister is doing ‘Chandi path’ (reciting hymns of Goddess Chandi) with the election in mind after denying permission for the immersion of Durga idol and holding of Saraswati puja in the state.

    “She may ring the bell (in a temple) as much as she wants, but the bell for her departure has already rung,” he said.

    Banerjee has politicised the police and criminalised politics in the state in her 10-year-long rule to give a free run to extortion, corruption and cut money culture, the BJP president asserted.

    “I urge you (people) to exercise your franchise to ban her (Banerjee) permanently for the sake of development of the state,” Nadda said at another rally at New Town in Kolkata.

    The BJP president said that on one side there is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who spreads the ho asks message of ‘sab ka sath sab ka vikas sab ka viswas’ for the collective development of 130 crore people of the country, while on the other side there is a political leader (Banerjee) who asks people of a community to get united.

    Why is she doing this and against whom? “Her (Banerjees) anxiety has reached such a point that being a chief minister she is asking people to gherao CAPF jawans,” he said.

    Maintaining that the Election Commission had banned Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours for her comment asking people of a particular community to unite, Nadda wondered at the kind of government in West Bengal for the last 10 years (under TMC) “which works for dividing the society”.

    He said, It is astonishing that the chief minister did not spare a word about the killing of first time voter Ananda Barman, a dalit youth at the hands of TMC goons at Sitalkuchi.

    “Barman was killed in the fourth phase of the ongoing state poll on April 10. The death of every person is unfortunate, including that of the four persons who died in firing by central armed police force personnel when a mob allegedly tried to snatch their firearms and the voting machine also at Sitalkuchi. Banerjee should have spoken of Barman also while she expressed her deep sorrow for the loss of lives of the others,” Nadda said.

    Reacting to Nadda’s allegation, TMC MP Saugata Roy said that the BJP presiident need not give lessons to the TMC government on the issue and claimed that Dalits in Bengal are in a much better condition than in BJP-ruled states.

    Roy said that the TMC after returning to power in Bengal will ensure assistance for everyone who died and there will be no discrimination.

    Paying his espects to B R Ambedkar, the father of Indian Constitution on his birth anniversary, Nadda alleged at a rally at Katwa that under Banerjee’s leadership TMC leaders are insulting Dalits so many years after Independence.

    Claiming that a woman TMC leader had recently used derogatory words against people of scheduled castes and backward classes people, he said “Mamata didi has not said a word castigating the leader for her remarks, proving the TMC’s anti-Dalit stance.”

    At another poll meeting at Asansol, Nadda said that Bengal’s turnaround is not possible until the people of the state have an honest leadership and claimed that this time all the combinations for a real “parivartan” (change) are in place.

    Maintaining that a BJP government has to take over for ensuring the economic development of the state, the partys president said “What the people of Bengal are looking for is not just a change, but to regain its lost glory and recreation of Sonar Bangla (prosperous Bengal).”

    Earlier in the day, Nadda took part in a well-attended road show at Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district.