With a couple of days remaining for the campaign to end for the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections, two star campaigners for the BJP and the TMC — Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee — on Tuesday held roadshows in support of their respective party candidates and made allegations against each other.
In the seventh phase of the elections, nine constituencies of West Bengal, including Kolkata Uttar, Kolkata Dakshin, Jadavpur, Barasat, Basirhat and Diamond Harbour, will be going to the polls on Saturday.
Addressing a rally in Baruipur, which falls under the Jadavpur LS constituency, the Prime Minister said, “Modi is working for Viksit Bharat. You have seen my work during the last 10 years. In the last 10 years, unprecedented works were carried out in terms of creating opportunities for the youth of the country and providing support to the poor and the middle-class. Metro Rail has reached more than 20 cities. We are working promptly for the expansion of the Kolkata Metro Rail, which now has the remarkable feat of the country’s first under-river metro line. In the next five years, Vande Bharat train routes will be connecting more cities.”
The BJP leader said in the next five years, huge job opportunities will be created across India. “When Modi is working towards Viksit Bharat, it will not be possible without a Viksit Bengal. It is necessary to bring back Bengal’s old glory. At that time it was India’s epicentre of culture and economy... But it is very unfortunate that the politics of CPI(M) and TMC have finished Bengal. CPI(M) and TMC are two different parties, but their shops are the same.”
Modi tarred the TMC and the Left, the political rivals, with the same brush, alleging that both these parties have the same “agenda”.
“Both the Trinamool and the Left are partners in the INDI alliance. They both have given Bengal a corrupt system. Both of them indulge in the politics of appeasement. Both are anti-democracy. Be it the panchayat polls, civic poll, Assembly or Lok Sabha, no elections in Bengal are without violence,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister further flayed the TMC government in the state for “snatching the rights of OBC youths” to facilitate its appeasement politics and “vote jihad”. Without naming Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he criticised her for questioning the judges of the Calcutta High Court and wondered if the TMC would now “let loose its goons on judges” following unfavourable rulings.
Notably, the Calcutta High Court last week struck down several classes as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under an Act of 2012 of the state for reservation of vacancies in services and posts, finding these illegal. Banerjee, however, announced that her government will approach a higher court, challenging the High Court order.
Addressing a rally in Behala, which falls under Kolkata Dakshin LS constituency, the Chief Minister said, “The PM is only inaugurating Metro projects in Kolkata. It’s shameful. All these projects were started during my time (when she was the Railway minister). Ask them who had done the Tollygunge-Garia Metro extension? Ask them who had done Taratala to Joka extension? Moreover, they have not yet started the direct metro line between Joka and Dum Dum. That means they will inaugurate this part another time. They are not feeling the suffering of the people. But he (Modi) will not be able to get the time to flag off this. His government is not coming this time.”
Banerjee said her government in West Bengal has carried out several developmental works in the state, including Kolkata. “But they (BJP) cannot see these developments. They only deprive Bengal and delay projects,” she added.