Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday responded sharply to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Didi-o-Didi jibes saying “his strategy to lampoon will boomerang on him” and “the BJP will end up into becoming a tadpole,” after the elections.
Hitting out at the Prime Minister from a rally at Chinsurah the Chief Minister said, “I am fighting single alone with a broken leg … still I will win the elections with one leg today and then I will win Delhi with two legs … so it is time for the BJP to watch out.”
The Trinamool Congress has been objecting to Prime Minister’s repeated mentioning of the Chief Minister as “Didi o Didi” in various rallies provoking wide laughter. “I have not heard a person sitting on that high a constitutional post to ridicule another person also sitting on a constitutional post in such a demeaning manner … it is anything but politics,” TMC MP Mahua Moitra earlier said referring to the Prime Minister.
Iterating once again that Bengal will not be ruled by Gujarat, Banerjee said being a Royal Bengal tigress “I promise to you that I will not allow any one from Gujarat to dictate terms in Bengal … Bengal will be ruled by the Bengalis and none else.”
Apparantly attacking Home Minister Amit Shah for “failing to ensure security of the central forces,” --- who are manning the elections of Bengal --- Banerjee said “they (central ministers) are sitting in Bengal instead of governing the country for which they have been elected whereas our central forces are being massacred in Chhattisgarh.”
Attacking Indian Secular Front leader and Muslim cleric Abbas Siddique who has joined hands with the Left and the Congress to raise a third front in Bengal, Banerjee said “there are some new entrants who are taking huge money from the BJP to divide the minority votes --- just like a party from Hyderabad (AIMIM) did in Bihar ensuring the defeat of secular forces there by dividing the Muslim votes … But I am sure the minority people of Bengal will not fall into the trap of these upstart leaders and they will not allow their vote to be divided.”
The Chief Minister also raised the issue of holding elections in eight phases saying she would have held it in three or four phases. In an obvious reference to the Election Commission Banerjee said “was it prudent to hold the elections in eight phases during the pandemic situation … Is it not putting the voters and election workers at risk? … I would have preferred holding the elections 3-4 phases.”
Reminding that no amount of splurging of money could bring the BJP to power as “the people of Bengal are politically conscious,” Banerjee said “After May 2 it is once again going to the be the same story of Unnayan (development) being carried out by a TMC Government.”
