Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched his harshest attack on the Mamata Banerjee Government in Kolkata. Addressing two rallies on the outskirts of Kolkata and participating in his first roadshow in the heart of the city before the last phase of Lok Sabha elections, Modi criticised the manner in which the Mamata Banerjee Government had tried to utilise the OBC quota to “accommodate her vote bank”.
He also said that in 10 years, he had confiscated Rs 17,000 crore from “corrupt people” and returned it to the people of India.
Criticising the Trinamool Congress Government and emphasizing the importance of protecting the rights of SC, ST, OBC communities, Modi said: “Their politics is aimed at their vote bank. They had illegally declared 77 Muslim communities under the OBC category. When the court pulled them up, to appease the Muslims, they are saying they will not obey the High Court’s order.”
“People have seen how Trinamool is attacking the judiciary in Bengal. Trinamool cannot bear the truth. Whenever someone questions them, brings their crimes to light, the Trinamool targets them,” Modi said at Ashoknagar in Barasat.
“The Trinamool has started abusing the Hindu monks and ascetics,” he said on Tuesday in his address ahead of his visit to Mayer Bari. “Ramakrishna Mission, ISKCON and Bharat Sevashram Sangha are respected all over the world, but the Trinamool has started abusing them to carry forward its agenda of vote jihad,” he said.
“Trinamool’s politics is politics of blood. They promote corruption,” Modi said, while also targeting the I.N.D.I. bloc partners Trinamool and the Left. “Both indulge in politics of appeasement. Both are anti-democracy. Panchayat, civic polls, Assembly or Lok Sabha are not without violence in Bengal,” he said.
“Does the Trinamool have any vision for the country? For Bengal? They only work for their vote bank and cannot do anything for the youth. They want you to stay poor and unemployed so that they can run their dukaan,” Modi said.
In his rally in Baruipur, Modi said that the BJP’s vision of Viksit Bharat was not possible without Viksit Bengal. “Our vision is to make India a global hub for tourism and textiles. Unprecedented investments have been made in modern connectivity and public transport. In the last 10 years, every day in India two new colleges have been established, one new University has come up every week. Every year, 30 new medical colleges have been opened,” said the Prime Minister.
“In the last two months, I have been to different parts of Bengal. This time, the Trinamool and I.N.D.I. alliance partners’ fortresses are going to collapse. Voters of Bengal are going to make the lotus bloom here,” Modi said, adding that the people of Bengal know how important it is to have a strong Government at the Centre. “On June 4, new history will be created,” Modi said.
He also said that the Trinamool Congress Government had “no links with sushasan. In Bengal sushasan cannot be seen with either binoculars or under a microscope. Choose politics of performance over politics of blood this time,” the Prime Minister said in his Baruipur rally.
In the evening, after paying obeisance at Maayer Bari, the residence of Maa Sarada, the wife of Sri Ramakrishna, the Prime Minister also participated in a roadshow in the heart of North Kolkata. He started his roadshow after paying his respects at the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Flanked by the BJP’s state president Sukanta Majumdar and Leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari, and Lok Sabha candidates of Dum Dum and North Kolkata, the Prime Minister waved to the multitude of people lining the two-kilometer route and held aloft a bunch of lotus flowers, his party’s symbol.
The roadshow ended at Swami Vivekananda’s house in Simla Street.
The entire route of the roadshow had huge cut-outs and banners of Narendra Modi with the slogan “Banglar mone Modi”, which translates into “Modi is in the hearts of Bengalis”.
BJP leader Swapan Dasgupta said: “Narendra Modi’s roadshow through the old city in North Kolkata has touched a chord in the hearts of Bengali Hindus. It could presage the beginnings of the BJP’s breakthrough into the Bhadralok section that had hitherto resisted the saffron party.”
