Midnapore (West Bengal): Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in West Bengal for the 2019 general elections got off to an eventful start on Monday when a section of the canopy erected to provide shade to 70,000 people at a public meeting in Midnapore, crashed moments after he started to speak, injuring several.
Modi paused to urge the crowd to maintain calm while officials from his security detail and the police rushed to rescue people on whom the canopy had collapsed. Modi then turned the disruption into an opportunity to compliment the people. “I have not seen such disciplined people even in Gujarat,” he said, as the dust settled.
Modi later visited the injured at a nearby hospital where they were taken for treatment.
At least 90 people sustained injuries, according to a statement by the state-run Midnapore Medical College and Hospital. Of them, 14 were discharged after being kept under observation, the statement added.
The administration blamed the organizers for the accident. However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and the police blamed it on overenthusiastic supporters who, they said, had climbed on to the metal structure on which the canopy was erected to get a better view of the Prime Minister.
Once order was restored, Modi launched an attack on Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, alleging that her government was worse than that of the Left Front which had ruled the state for 34 years till 2011.
Modi alleged that central funds for development projects were being siphoned to “syndicates” or cronies of the Trinamool Congress.
Syndicates, or the organized mafia of building material suppliers, were hobbling development of civic infrastructure, Modi claimed, alleging that nothing could be built in West Bengal unless they were paid.
Modi said such cronies controlled everything in the state, from deposit-taking companies to potato bonds, even as a key accused in the scam over public deposits, Mukul Roy, sat on the dais. Roy, a co-founder of the Trinamool Congress, defected to the BJP last year.
Modi alleged that Banerjee’s government was corrupt and gave the example of Tripura when he called on West Bengal’s electorate to overthrow the government. “Bengal is waiting for an opportunity to remove the incumbent,” he said. Even after the widespread violence in this year’s panchayat elections, the people of the state have “whole-heartedly supported” the BJP, he said.
Meanwhile, BJP supporters clashed with the police when a bus they were travelling in was stopped on its way to the rally. Outraged party workers attacked the police, beating up several police personnel. The administration has registered a criminal case against the party workers.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said the administration tried to stop people from attending the rally, while admitting that the party workers should not have attacked the police.
Trinamool Congress general secretary Partha Chatterjee said the BJP had ferried in people from neighbouring states to fill up the rally ground.
The BJP is aiming to secure six Lok Sabha seats in West Midnapore, Jhargram, Bankura and Purulia districts, said Biswanath Chakraborty, an independent election analyst and a professor of political science at Kolkata’s Rabindra Bharati University.
The party is looking to establish itself in regions of the state with a Muslim population of less than 15% of the electorate, he said, adding that if Modi were to make a few more visits to the state, the fight in these seats will be a close one.