Day after,CM ticks off PM

“I don’t know what made him make those allegations. May be he said these because of the alliance compulsion,” the chief minister said at a press briefing in Kolkata. When pointed out Singh had once described him as the “best” chief minister in the country,Bhattacharjee said: “May be,he changed his mind on the eve of the election. This is not unusual. After all,he attended a public meeting and had to say something.”

The chief minister said he was not bothered about what the PM said about him and went on to add,“The last word is what people think of me.”

Stating that Singh’s comment that Muslims in West Bengal are worse off than those in Gujarat,Bhattacharjee said: “I did not expect such comments from Singh. Muslims in our state live in peace and harmony; whereas those in Gujarat live in a state of uncertainty.”

“Besides,Muslims in our state get scholarships and business loans. No state gives the kind of loans that the

Muslims get from the West Bengal Minority Development Corporation,” he added.

Bhattacharjee also dismissed the Prime Minister’s comment that West Bengal’s literacy rate was below that of Manipur and Nagaland. “So far as literacy rate of Bengal is concerned,while the national literacy rate is 74 per cent,our rate is 77 per cent. The prime minister’s comments are so unfortunate. In any case he has done his job,campaigning for his party,’’ Bhattacharjee told mediapersons.

But the chief minister did not let go the opportunity of wedging a divide between the Congress and Trinamool alliance partners.

“For the last two years we have been hearing that the dedicated railway freight corridor would be constructed with Japanese help soon. But that has not been done and the prime minister expressed his unhappiness to me over this. He was not happy either when the Tatas took away their small car project from Singur,’’ Bhattacharjee said.

Referring to Singh’s comment that if the Congress-Trinamool alliance comes to power,Presidency college would be brought back to its former glory,Bhattacharjee said it would be the Left Front government which would do that. “We will make it a centre of excellence,’’ the CM said.