JOIN USWin 30 seats in West Bengal first, then dream of 294 seats: Mamata Banerjee challenges BJP
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday challenged the BJP to first win 30 Assembly seats in the state and then dream of of winning all the 294 seats.
Alleging that the BJP “bought” few Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs Mamata said that the saffron party was making a big mistake if they thought that they could buy the TMC.
“They (BJP) think they can buy TMC just by purchasing few MLAs. When TMC was founded it was a little sapling but now it has become a huge banyan tree... Let them get 30 seats first, then they can dream of 294 seats. It’s not that easy,” said Mamata. She also said that BJP leaders only visit Bengal ahead of elections and were otherwise not bothered about the state. She was addressing a TMC rally at Bolpur in Birbhum district.
Her comments come days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a rally in Birbhum and said that BJP would come to power in Bengal by winning more than 200 seats in the Assembly elections.
Taking a veiled dig at Shah’s claim that BJP would build a 'Sonar Bangla' (Golden Bengal) if voted to power in the state, Mamata said that Tagore had already set up 'Sonar Bangla' and no one else should dream about doing it again.
Dubbing the BJP as a “party of outsiders” bringing “hate politics” to Bengal the Chief Minister said that the “land of Rabindranath Tagore” would never accept it.
The Chief Minister also lashed out at Visva-Bharati University's vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakraborty, alleging that he was a “BJP man” and was planning to destroy the rich heritage of the institution by bringing in divisive politics.
“I feel pained to see that there are plots to bring in communal and divisive police in Visva-Bharati. The Vice Chancellor is a BJP man trying to malign the image of the University by resorting to communal politics,” said Mamata.
She further alleged that outsiders were being sent to villages to incite the people against her government.
“Outsiders have been sent to villages. These outsiders are going door to door telling villagers that ‘Mamata has done nothing; there is no development and so you join the BJP’” said Mamata. She urged people to lodge a police complaint whenever they see “outsiders” in their neighborhood.