Mamata lashes out at Modi

A day after the BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi breathed fire at Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, she returned the rhetoric by implying that he has blood on his hands.

Banerjee has been calling Modi the “face of riots” for nearly a month now to drive her point home. Addressing a public rally at Karandighi in North Dinajpur district, around 500 km north of Kolkata on Friday, she attacked Modi indirectly, saying those who had blood on their hands should not talk about the country.

“I am ready to give my life, but I will not allow division of Hindus and Muslims,” she said.
This comes 24 hours after Modi, at a public rally near Siliguri in north Bengal on Thursday, accused Mamata of playing vote-bank politics.

While stating that her party stands for communal harmony and respect towards all religions, the Trinamool chief pointed out that the party was part of the Central government when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prime minister because that government was not in favour of communal divides.

She added that unlike the Vajpayee government, the BJP in its current form will not win seats because “Gujarat witnessed riots, and the people did not support riots”.

Claiming that the BJP would not receive a single seat this time even if it has a whole lot of funds, Banerjee blamed both the saffron party and the Congress for dividing the country. She said this became evident when their joined hands over the Telangana issue.

She further accused the Congress of selling the nation, and held the ruling party responsible for the spiralling price rise of essential commodities, corruption, and repeated hike in price of petro-products, causing severe problems for the common man. “Only the Trinamool can form government in Delhi,” she stated.