Mamata Banerjee accused BJP of politicising the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan and action has been taken against some who chanted it in front of her. Now, your party is sending ‘Jai Shri Ram’ postcards to her. Why?

BJP workers in West Bengal were attacked when they were celebrating after Lok Sabha results. Three BJP workers h-ave been killed. Mamata Banerjee is frustrated and on hearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ she reacts as if someone has put hot oil in her ear. It is ironic that she likens ‘Jai Shri Ram’ as abuse to her. How can this religious mantra of millions be an abuse? If she feels so, people of the country should decide about her future. Mamata had threatened to take inch-by-inch revenge against BJP supporters, which she has started doing.

But Banerjee alleges that a large number of ‘outsiders’ have come to West Bengal and want to disturb the state.

On the contrary, Mamata Banerjee has no problem with actual outsiders settled in Bengal like Rohingyas. Over 1.5 crore illegal migrants from Bangladesh have settled in the state and they have been given citizenship certificates, even ration cards. These illegal settlers are taken care of by the government, robbing the actual inhabitants of their rights. Bengali community is angry, people are concerned about invasion of their culture.

BJP invited families of victims of political violence to the swearing-in ceremony after which Banerjee cancelled her visit to the event. Wasn’t it politicisation by BJP?

See, BJP is a political party where a grassroots worker like Narendra Modi has taken over as the country’s PM. Why not invite all the families who have sacrificed their near and dear ones? It wasn’t planned but an instant decision. In fact, she (Mamata) was looking for an escape route to avoid the event.

But Banerjee says there have been no political murders and some deaths were due to personal fights.

She is protecting goons in her party and, to an extent, justifying killings of BJP workers in the state.

Assembly polls are at least two years away. How will the BJP maintain the current momentum?

The Mamata Banerjee government is not going to complete its full term… it will fall way ahead of polls as a large number of party legislators are ready to rebel and quit. There will be en masse exodus of TMC MLAs, who can quit the party any time. Senior leaders are angry as they fear that Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee is ready to succeed her. I know some TMC leaders who are not happy that they will have to report to Abhishek now.

But does the party have a vision or a plan of action in case it wins the assembly polls?

The biggest problem facing the state is poor law and order. The state has lagged way behind in terms of development. Equally important is the changing demography of the border districts. We have pledged to correct the demographic imbalance.



In Video: Mamata Banerjee on hearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ reacts as if someone has put hot oil in her ear: Kailash Vijayvargiya