lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Jan 22, 2019 22:59 IST

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah kicked off the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign in West Bengal on Tuesday, attacking chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, saying the outcome of the battle for the state’s 42 seats will be a pointer to where the state is headed.

The rally in Malda took place three days after Banerjee played host to Opposition leaders from all over the country who addressed a joint rally in Kolkata, where they resolved to wage a joint fight against the BJP in the general election. “The 2019 Lok Sabha election is more important for Bengal than for the rest of the country. This election will determine whether this... TMC government will remain or be uprooted,” Shah said at the rally.

The BJP has been seeking to make inroads into West Bengal as it seeks to widen its political footprint. Shah has previously set out the goal of winning 22 out of the 42 seats the state fills in the Lok Sabha. Shah termed the proposed alliance opposition leaders are trying to forge as “all about power and self-interest.”

“Mamata didi, you can’t remove (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi by gathering a clutch of leaders to link hands and raise them. What is this gathbandhan (alliance)? It’s all about power and self-interest.Further, of the 23 persons (who) gathered (in Kolkata), nine of them want to be prime minister,” Shah said.

“The leaders at that gathering want a lax and ‘majboor’ (weak) administration in the country. Do you want a vulnerable government or a strong one?,” he asked the gathering.

From the dais, Shah also said the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2016 — which Banerjee’s party has opposed in the Lok Sabha — will be one of the most important poll issues in West Bengal. The bill seeks to confer citizenship on non-Muslim religious groups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. “Mamata di needs to clear her stand on the Bill. Does she not want Hindu refugees to get citizenship?,” said Shah.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is supposed to address his first public meeting in West Bengal the run-up to the polls on January 28 from Thakurnagar in North 24-Parganas district, where the Matuas (Hindu refugees from Bangladesh) make up most of the population.

On Tuesday, Shah alleged that the Modi government had allotted funds for West Bengal that were three times higher than what the state had received under the previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA-II ) but that they had been “eaten away”.

“Half the funds go to TMC leaders and the rest gets eaten away by illegal immigrants,” Shah said.

Soon after Shah’s speech, the TMC hit back. “After listening to the BJP president’s speech in Malda, it is obvious that they are very nervous. They know their days are numbered,” said party’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien. “Their speeches are low on facts and poor in taste. They don’t understand the ethos of India. They don’t understand the ethos of Bengal. They are heading towards one big zero. Some are saying they are desperate. Some are saying they have gone mad. Or, is it a combination of both?,” said O’Brien.

Shah said that if the BJP came to power, it would ensure that the people of the state do not have to pay what he termed a “syndicate tax”. O’Brien wrote in a Twitter post: “Mr Amit Shah, Bengal is not UP where you are spreading hate and disharmony. There is peace and harmony here. And, if you do not withdraw your wild allegations on “syndicate tax”, we shall charge you with criminal defamation.”

Although Shah was supposed to remain in Bengal for another public meeting in Jhargram on Wednesday, he headed back to Delhi after the Malda rally.