How can BJP build India when it can’t build a pandal, asks Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday cited the collapse of a makeshift tent at a recent rally featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to ridicule the BJP’s promise of building the nation.

“How can they (the BJP) build the country when they cannot build a pandal?” she quipped at the party’s Martyrs’ Day Rally in Kolkata’s Esplanade area.

As many as 90 people were injured when the section of a pandal caved in while Modi was delivering a speech at the BJP’s public rally in Midnapore on July 16. However, Modi and other party leaders on the dais escaped unhurt. He later visited the injured at the Midnapore Medical College and Hospital.

The Trinamool chief also predicted at the rally that the Trinamool Congress will register a resounding victory over the BJP at the state level in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. “We will win all 42 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal,” PTI quoted her as saying.

Brushing aside the NDA government’s victory in the no-trust motion held in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Banerjee said that its days in power are numbered. “During the no-confidence vote, they (NDA) got 325 votes. But in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, their strength will come down to barely 100 seats,” she asserted, adding that the BJP will fare badly in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

She then went on to announce the launch of a “BJP hatao-desh bachao (remove BJP, save the country)” campaign from August 15 to cut the BJP-led NDA to size before the upcoming parliamentary polls.

Former BJP Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra and four Congress MLAs – Samar Mukherjee, Abu Taher, Sabina Yasmin and Akhruzzman – joined the Trinamool Congress on the occasion. Mitra had resigned from the BJP a few days ago.

(With agency inputs)