Narendra Modi slams Left but goes soft on Mamata Banerjee

Making his debut in West Bengal for the upcoming election campaign, Narendra Modi on Wednesday (February 5) launched a blistering attack on the Left parties and the Third Front, saying they will make India a "third rate" country. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

Addressing a big rally, he reserved his fire for the Left parties and their associates trying to form a Third Front saying whenever elections they start talking about secularism and poor and mislead Muslims by practising vote-bank politics. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

The BJP's prime ministerial candidate was critical of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the beginning, asking people if the promised "poribartan (change)" had come and do they feel whether things have changed. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

Trying to strike a chord with the people of Bengal, he accused the Congress of denying Pranab Mukherjee, now President, the prime minister's post in 2004 even though he "deserved" the chair. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

Congress, Modi said, first denied Mukherjee the PM's post in 1984 after Indira Gandhi's assassination when he was the senior-most Cabinet minister and Rajiv Gandhi even dropped him from his Cabinet. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

BJP president Rajnath Singh made subtle overtures to the TMC supremo by sympathising with her demand for a bailout package for debt-ridden West Bengal and said the UPA government should have given a moratorium on loan repayment to the Centre. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

Modi took a dig at the UPA's "flawed" policies in dealing with the influx of Bangladeshi refugees in Bengal. (IE Photo: Subham Dutta)

BJP legal cell on Wednesday (February 5) organised a donation campaign for its Prime Ministerial candidate Narender Modi calling it the 'NaMo Tea Party' at Patiala House court in New Delhi. (IE Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)

BJP members serve tea to the people at the 'NaMo Tea Party'. (IE Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)

Few days back a similar 'tea party' was organised at Safdarjung Club by BJP leaders where they held interactive sessions with the people in a bid to popularise the message and aims of its Narendra Modi. (IE Photo: Prem Nath Pandey)