Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday lashed out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying that the Trinamool Congress chief is harbouring ambition to lead a government in New Delhi “leaving Bengal to middlemen and syndicate”. Addressing a public rally at Jalpaiguri in North Bengal, PM Modi said the middlemen rule supreme under the TMC government of Bengal.

“Didi is worried about moving to Delhi and she has left Bengal, the poor and middle class to be looted by the alliance of middlemen and syndicate,” PM Modi said at his third rally in week in the state.

He said, “Today, the situation in West Bengal is such that Didi is the chief minister but someone else is doing ‘dadagiri’. The TMC is in power but administration is run by ‘jagaai and madhaai’ (a reference to middlemen).”

PM Modi’s sharp attack at Banerjee comes at a time when the Centre and the West Bengal government are engaged in a bitter face-off over action by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar on Sunday in connection with chit fund scam cases.

Banerjee had staged a three-day sit-in protesting the CBI action calling it a “misuse of central agencies” against political opponents by the Modi government. The political fight between the BJP-led government and the TMC escalated after Banerjee held a ‘United India’ rally in January in Kolkata, where leaders from 23 opposition parties including the Congress shared the stage.

The prime minister responded to the charge leveled by Banerjee with a counter-attack. He said, “It is unprecedented that a chief minister sits on dharna to protect a person facing allegations of corruption.”

“This chowkidar will spare neither the perpetrators of chit fund scams nor those protecting them,” he asserted. PM Modi’s comment has come a day ahead of Kumar’s scheduled before the CBI team in the Saradha chit fund scam case. The CBI will question Kumar in Meghalaya’s capital Shillong. The Supreme Court, earlier this week, directed Kumar to appear before the CBI at the “neutral” place.

Watch: PM Modi hits out at Mamata, TMC at Jalpaigudi rally

PM Modi also accused the TMC government of resorting to violence against its political opponent. He said, “The people of Bengal voted for Didi to get rid of the violence of the communists. But the new government is following the same model of violence against its opponents...TMC government has become communist part-two.”

Banerjee’s TMC had defeated the Left Front government in West Bengal in 2011 ending more than three-decade rule of the coalition in the state. The TMC was re-elected in 2016 state elections.

First Published: Feb 08, 2019 17:14 IST