Burdwan : Lashing out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the Saradha chit fund scam and the Burdwan blast, BJP president Amit Shah Tuesday called for uprooting the Trinamool Congress for jeopardising national security for the sake of vote bank.
While Shah blamed the Banerjee government for the Burdwan blast in which a Bangladeshi militant outfit was involved, the Trinamool in turn dubbed the BJP rally a “flop show” and ridiculed its attempt to uproot the Trinamool from power through “missed calls”.
Addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Burdwan where the Oct 2 blast last year had killed two Bangladeshi militants, Shah hit out at the alleged involvement of Trinamool leaders in the Saradha scam and charged Banerjee with focusing only on trying to save her scam ‘tainted’ leaders.
“The Burdwan blast is only a glaring example of the Trinamool’s vote bank politics. Had this government properly investigated the blast in Kolkata that took place a year ago, the Burdwan blast would not have happened. But, for the sake of vote bank politics, the Trinamool government did not probe it properly,” Shah said.
“Even when the National Investigation Agency began probing the Burdwan blast, she (Banerjee) expressed her opposition over it. The Mamata government is answerable for the blast,” Shah said about the blast in which militant outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh was purportedly involved.
“The people of Bengal should not allow this government to run even for a day which jeopardises the nation’s security,” said Shah, whose party has been attacking the Trinamool over the Bangladeshi infiltration issue since the Lok Sabha polls.
Enumerating the development initiatives of the Narendra Modi government, Shah called for uprooting the Trinamool from Bengal.
“What the Congress-led UPA government could not do in 10 years, the Modi government has done it in just seven months, be it controlling price rise, lowering fuel prices or ensuring uninterrupted power supply.
“Only the BJP can bring development. So uproot the Trinamool from Bengal and bring the BJP to power,” Shah asserted.
“When the Modi government has taken the country towards the path of development, the Trinamool government has taken Bengal backwards. While the BJP wants to work for the development of Bengal, Mamata ji doesn’t allow us to do that,” said Shah, blaming the state government for closure of several industrial units and spreading unemployment.
“Trinamool MPs, ministers and their prominent party workers are involved in the Saradha scam. Such a big scam happened under her nose but she is busy looking for conspiracy,” Shah said in a reference to the Banerjee government Monday moving the Supreme Court alleging that the CBI was acting as an “instrument” of the central government and was targeting Trinamool leaders.
Probing the Saradha scam, the CBI has arrested many Trinamool leaders including state Transport Minister Madan Mitra and called for questioning party general secretary and former union minister Mukul Roy.
Kicking off a membership drive in the state, Shah asserted that the Trinamool’s attacks on BJP activists and supporters cannot stop his party’s “victory cavalcade”.
He claimed that much like in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, his party would come to power in Delhi, Bihar and Bengal.
Describing the Trinamool regime as “worse than the 34 years rule of the Communists”, Shah called the people to usher in a change by voting the BJP to power in the state.
Continuing the attack on the Trinamool, state BJP chief Rahul Sinha accused the state government of compromising Shah’s Z-plus category security by withdrawing a police pilot car from his convoy.
Taking the attack further, BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh asked Banerjee – who was scheduled to undertake a three-day visit to Bangladesh next month – to clarify whether one of her party MPs has connections with militants in the neighbouring nation.
“Before leaving for Bangladesh, you will also have to clarify that whether in the past three years, around Rs.100 crore has been siphoned off from West Bengal to Bangladesh.
“It has been written that those behind it are Bengal politicians, state level leaders,” said Siddharth Nath Singh, who has accusing the Trinamool of having links with a Bangladeshi fundamentalist outfit.
Dubbing Shah’s rally a “flop show”, Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee ridiculed the BJP’s attempt to uproot the Trinamool from power through “missed calls”.
“Today’s BJP rally at Burdwan was a flop show. People who have no capacity to bloom shapla (a type of plant) are talking of the lotus (BJP’s election symbol) blooming in Bengal.
“I hope Amit babu has understood it is difficult for the lotus to bloom in Bengal,” said Chatterjee.
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