Aami ei PM mani na

TAMLUK/GOPIBALLAVPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee were engaged in a no-holds-barred battle over post-Fani relief and central aid during electioneering in the state with the former accusing the latter of turning down his "repeated" offers of help. Banerjee retorted saying she refused to "accept" Modi as PM, adding, "I will speak to the new PM (after the May 23 results)."Modi fired the first salvo at a rally in East Midnapore's Tamluk. Accusing Banerjee of repeatedly ignoring his attempts at assessing cyclone damage and helping Bengal, he said: "Bengal's speedbreaker Didi has left no stone unturned to do politics even with cyclone relief. I tried to speak to Mamata Didi over telephone after the cyclone. I kept waiting, thinking maybe she would return the call. But she never called back."Modi said he wanted to talk to the CM as he was worried about the people of Bengal. "Unfortunately, she did not respond to my call the second time, too. You can easily gauge how politics even stops her from bothering about Bengal's people," Modi added.Ten minutes later, Mamata responded at a Trinamool meet in West Midnapore's Gopiballavpur, a little more than 100 km away from Tamluk. "(I refuse to accept this PM)," she said."The PM had an election meeting in Jhargram. He got off at Kalaikunda and summoned us (the state administration) for a meeting. I was not in Kolkata when the cyclone hit Bengal. I was in Kharagpur. He (Modi) has not come to assess the situation. He has come for an election meeting," Banerjee said.