Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not mince words and categorically said that TMC supremo Mamata Bannerjee ran a “Hitler like regime” in W Bengal. He put the blame of the Ram Navami violence in W Bengal completely on her and said “if you give us just 35 seats in 2024, we will ensure that the Mamata government collapses”
In an 18-minute speech, Amit Shah in Birbhum’s Siuri town said that if voters could ensure they won 35 of the 42 seats on offer, it would lead to a collapse of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC in the state. IN 2019, BJP won 18 seats which is its highest tally ever in the State. They won their first seat in 2014.
Referring to the BJP’s performance in the 2021 assembly elections where it became the principal opposition in West Bengal, winning 77 seats, Shah said, “Complete that beginning in 2024. Give BJP more than 35 seats and make Narendra Modi the Prime Minister once again. The only way to end the rule of lawlessness by Mamata Banerjee and her nephew is to bring in a BJP government.”
“Don’t people of Bengal have the right to celebrate Ram Navami? We saw the rallies being attacked in Howrah and Hooghly. TMC’s politics of appeasement is responsible for this… People all over asked why should a temple for Lord Ram be built at Ayodhya. The Congress, Mamata Didi and their associates stalled it for years. But Modi Ji went to Ayodhya one day and laid the foundation stone. The critics were silenced,” Shah said.
The home minister, who also garlanded a statue of B R Ambedkar and inaugurated a new party office in Siuri, also targeted the TMC on alleged cattle smuggling to infiltration to a reported bribe-for-job case that are under investigation by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
“Only BJP can stop illegal infiltration from across the border. Bengal was once the nerve centre of India’s freedom movement but now it is the centre of terror. The NIA (National Investigation Agency) has seized 87,000 kilos of ammonium nitrate from Bengal. The state has turned into a bomb factory,” he added.
He said that “a man sent to jail in the cattle smuggling case is still the TMC president in Birbhum”- a reference to Anubrata Mondal, currently lodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail.
“BJP will not let this Hitler-like regime continue. You (the voters) can end it. I promise the next chief minister of West Bengal will be someone from the BJP. Can Mamata Didi give a befitting reply to Pakistan? Can she end terrorism in Kashmir? Only Modi Ji can do that,” Shah said.
“When Modi Ji has ended dynastic rule in India, Mamata Banerjee’s only aim is to make her nephew the next chief minister,” he said.
The TMC reacted sharply to Shah’s comments with TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh saying, “Only Amit Shah can make such an anti-democratic statement. What is the nation’s home minister trying to indicate by saying that winning 35 seats in Bengal will lead to the collapse of an elected State government? BJP targeted 200 assembly seats in 2021 but failed to achieve it.”
Ghosh said that the Birbhum rally was a “flop” and said that people from Bihar had been ferried to the rally ground.
“He talks of Ram Navami violence. The man who was brandishing a gun at a Ram Navami rally was arrested from Bihar by the state police,” said Ghosh. Ghosh also said that why was it that there was violence reported from non BJP ruled States in India, This is because BJP encourages lumpen elements whether it is not in power.
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