“Modi had suddenly turned up in Midnapore to profess his new-found love for farmers…,” said party secretary general Partha Chatterjee.
Addressing a gathering at the same ground in West Midnapore, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a rally on July 16, Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders on Saturday urged people to oust BJP and said the country needs a leader like Mamata Banerjee, who works for all. Pushing Mamata’s name as the next Prime Minister, state Transport Minister Suvendu Adhikari said, “We will get all seats in Lok Sabha polls. We want a Bengali Prime Minister. There is no alternative to Didi and we must ensure her victory.”
Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim said, “The people of India need Mamata Banerjee. She is not hungry for power. The people of the country need a leader who works for everybody. Didi has done a lot for Bengal. Now it’s time to change the life of people outside the state.”
Taking on Modi over his syndicate remark, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee said, “Yes, we have syndicates… syndicate of people to usher in development in the state. We have also formed a syndicate to oust the BJP from the Centre.”
Reiterating that “syndicate raj” prevailed in the state, the BJP on Saturday responded by saying the TMC could not fool the people. “The TMC leaders themselves talked about syndicate raj. They said the TMC government will collapse if syndicate is stopped,” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said. “The people in the state know that nothing can be done without the syndicate. The prime minister said that,” he added.
Dismissing BJP’s charge that the TMC chief resorted to appeasement of Muslims, Abhishek sought to know what the PM had done for the Hindus. “There is a huge difference between the TMC and the BJP. The TMC believes in peaceful co-existence of all religions, while the BJP creates hatred amongst Hindus and Muslims. He (Modi) pretends to be a messiah of the Hindus. However, I would like to ask what exactly has Modi done for the Hindus in the last four years. The Centre had taken ‘Namami Gange’ (National Mission for Clean Ganga) project (out) at a cost of Rs 3,000 crore, but not even a pond was cleaned. Whereas Mamata has done a lot for the Hindus, including developing Gangasagar, building skywalk at Dakshineswar temple and many more. There lies the uniqueness of the Bengal government,” the TMC MP said.
State Education Minister and party secretary general Partha Chatterjee accused the BJP of spreading wrong information about the Mamata Banerjee-led government. He also alleged that the Modi was shedding crocodile tears for the farmers.
“Modi had suddenly turned up in Midnapore to profess his new-found love for farmers. I ask where was he when the farmers’ agitations in Nandigram and Singur were taking place. BJP leaders only talk about talvars (swords), banshi (flute) and rath (chariot). They never talk about people and their problems,” Chatterjee said. “It’s not just the tent that has collapsed (referring to the incident during Modi’s rally), but their support is also dwindling. More than 80 per cent of their district members have expressed their desire to join the TMC and we welcome all of them,” he added.
With PTI