With Mahua on her side, Mamata slams PM: ‘Vote for her as she was disqualified for speaking against BJP’

This was Mamata’s first election rally after she suffered an injury on her head a fortnight ago. “They arrested (Delhi CM) Arvind Kejriwal, but they could not stop him from working. He is still working from jail. In the BJP washing machine, one Patel went inside and now is free of corruption. This is washing machine Bhajpa,” the West Bengal chief minister said, referring to Praful Patel, who quit NCP to join BJP.

“Every day, the CBI, ED, and Income Tax teams are being sent to the houses of our leaders. Recently, an I-T raid was conducted at the house of one of our leaders (Swarup Biswas) for three days. If the BJP is confident of winning 400 seats, why are they sending CBI and ED teams to our leaders’ houses? Why are officers from Bengal being sent to other states,” she asked.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee with party’s Krishnanagar candidate Mahua Moitra in Nadia, Sunday. (Express Photo: Partha Paul)

Mamata also slammed Modi over his telephonic conversations with BJP candidates in West Bengal and wondered whether the prime minister has “forgotten” the country’s history and went ahead to field “someone whose ancestors sided with Lord Clive” of British East India Company “to defeat Siraj-ud-Daulah”, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, referring to the BJP’s Krishnanagar candidate Amrita Roy.

“There is no secrecy. You (Modi) have been calling them (candidates) and releasing the audio recordings of the telephonic conversation in public. It is a breach of secrecy. They have become Pegasus,” she said, referring to the controversial snooping software.

“One of them (BJP’s Basirhat candidate Rekha Patra) avails benefits of (TMC government schemes) Swasthya Sathi and Lakshmir Bhandar, while the other who you people call Raj Mata (Amrita Roy), her ancestors sided with Lord Clive. We do not support Mir Jafars,” the TMC chief said.

Taking a dig at the royal family, Mamata Banerjee said: “Let us not debate whether Siraj-ud-Daulah was good or not. Has Modi babu forgotten the history by making a member of the family a BJP candidate whose ancestors stood by Lord Clive to put an end to the freedom struggle of Bengal? The Rajas and Rajmatas should remain in their palaces and serve people. But let’s not take refuge in lies to serve the people. The people will not forgive these people as they never forget their history,” said the chief minister.

“Modi’s guarantee is zero and aamader guarantee manush i hero (Our guarantee is that people are heroes),” she said, referring to BJP’s election slogan of “Modi KI Guarantee”.
The TMC chief also came down heavily on the CPI(M) and the Congress, the two INDIA bloc partners, calling their alliance ghont (making things complicated).

“Today, I want to say why you should vote for the TMC and not for the BJP or the Left-Congres. If you vote for the Left-Congress alliance and the new party (ISF), then you are voting for the BJP. There is an INDIA alliance in the country. In fact, I had given the name for the alliance. Once the election is over, I will look into it. But there is no such alliance between the CPI(M) and the Congress in Bengal. It is only ghnot (confusion) and not jote (alliance),” she said.

Mamata’s remarks against the Left and the Congress came on a day when her party attended the INDIA bloc rally in Delhi.

On the issue of the BJP government at the Centre notifying the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the TMC supremo said it was a ploy to take up a National Register of Citizens exercise in the near future.

“In the CAA committee, they have put one member from the census department. Why has such a member been included if they have no plans for the NRC in the future? The CAA is the head and the NRC is the tail. Why are BJP leaders not applying for citizenship under the CAA? It is because if they apply, they will have to declare themselves as foreigners and therefore cannot contest the election anymore. Recently, a youth who was worried about the CAA died by suicide in Sonarpur,” she said.

Krishnanagar goes to poll on May 13 in the fourth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal. In 2019, Moitra won the election by a margin of over 60,000 votes.