HALDIA (EAST MIDNAPORE): In her sharpest retort yet to PM Modi’s repeated “tolabaaz (extortionist)” jibe, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused him of usurping public money raised in the name of battling the pandemic and BJP of resorting to electoral malpractice “because they fear Didi”.
“Covid er nameh tullo taka, Narendra Modi korlo faka. PM Care-er taka gelo kothaye? (Modi has appropriated money raised to fight Covid. Where has the PM Cares fund gone),” she asked. “They are the biggest tolabaaz”.
Mamata claimed BJP had realised that the only way it stood a chance against her was through unfair means.
“They can’t fight me politically — so they are using money to buy votes and intimidating people with raids and arrests. They are dictating whom we should worship, what we should eat. India is waiting for Bengal. Once they are routed in Bengal, they know they will face a similar fate in other states, too.”
The CM and her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, also slammed the PM for his remark that while 50 minutes of social media disruption on Friday evening left millions worldwide in a tizzy, people in Bengal had suffered 50 years of no development. “The PM knows Facebook and WhatsApp were down for 50 minutes. But does he know about the death of migrants or even Hathras? Their politics is all about FB and WhatsApp, but we fight on the streets. They speak of doubleengine; it will be double corruption from Kolkata to Delhi,” Abhishek said at a rally in West Midnapore’s Daspur.
(Inputs from Sujay Khanra in Midnapore)