Purulia (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday called for defeating the saffron camp in the 2024 general election and said BJP’s politics of hate and violence will find “no entry” across the country.
Dubbing the BJP-led government at the Centre as “adulterated”, she accused it of mismanaging the country’s economy through decisions such as demonetization and using central agencies to silence the opposition.
“Let me make it very clear that there will be no entry for BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It has to go. There are no chances of BJP returning to power,” she said criticising the eight years of the Narendra Modi government.
The feisty TMC boss said the people of India will ensure that in 2024 BJP’s politics of hate and violence find no entry in the country.
“The soil of Purulia and the soil of Bengal gave me the strength to fight for people. I fear nobody and when it comes to ensuring people’s welfare, I will fight with all my might! – @MamataOfficial. In 2024, @BJP4India’s politics of hate & violence will find no entry in India,” the AITC later tweeted.
Banerjee said the Modi government began its tenure with fake promises, culminating in failed experiments eight years later.
“The BJP government has destroyed the lives of the common people … The citizens of the country are fed up with the anti-people government at the Centre”, she said.
Banerjee, who was addressing a meeting of TMC workers of Purulia district, also said, “The BJP-led government at the Centre is adulterated. It has destroyed the country’s economy through disastrous decisions like demonetisation, which was a big scam”.
Slamming the Modi government for “using” central agencies to destroy the opposition, Banerjee said the CBI and ED should first arrest corrupt BJP ministers.
“They (Modi government) are using CBI and ED and other central agencies to silence the opposition. They are busy arresting opposition leaders. You (Modi govt) have arrested Delhi’s minister (Satyendra Jain). You have arrested a Maharashtra minister. You are sending central agencies to Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand CM) residence. You are calling someone a coal thief (in West Bengal). What about BJP ministers? Why is no action being taken against them? They too should be put behind bars,” she asserted.
Her comments come a day after Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case. Aam Aadmi Party has cried foul, calling it a political move ahead of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly election.
Jain was taken into custody by the ED under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning on Monday.
Keeping up her attack against the BJP, the feisty TMC supremo said, “They are summoning people in the coal pilferage and cattle smuggling scam. But the coal ministry is with the union government.
“How come cattle are being smuggled through international borders?” she questioned in a veiled reference to central agencies summoning several TMC leaders in the two scandals, including party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in the coal pilferage scam.
Banerjee said TMC will organise protests on June 5 and 6 in various blocks of the state to protest against the Centre’s discrimination in the alleged non-payment of MNREGA funds it owed to the state.
“Either the Centre releases our funds, or it should go (step down). If you can’t pay the money to the states, you have no right to govern this country. We will organise protests against such discriminatory policies,” she said.
Listing the various welfare schemes undertaken for backward Purulia district, where BJP has gained ground in the last few years, Banerjee hoped that its people are no longer angry with the state government or TMC as it has come up with many welfare schemes and ensured that they reach every doorstep.
“From Ajodhya Hills to Bagmundi, we will have developmental projects worth Rs 72,000 crore. In Raghunathpur thousands of people will get jobs and even womenfolk will be employed,” she claimed.
A new film city and an airport will come up soon in the region, Banerjee added.
Once considered a stronghold of the Left Front, Purulia was snatched by TMC in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. But the saffron camp gained ground in the area and won the Lok Sabha seat in 2019.
In the 2021 assembly polls out of the nine assembly seats in the district, six were won by BJP and three by TMC.
Reacting to Banerjee’s comment, state BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the allegations of central agencies being misused are baseless.
“In 2019 too she had said BJP won’t return to power and we have seen the results. The BJP will return to power for the third consecutive time in 2024. The allegations of central agencies being misused are baseless,” he added.
