BJP national president Amit Shah on Thursday called upon the people of Bengal to bring BJP to power for a new Sonar Bangla or Golden Bengal to emerge from the debris of the Mamata Banerjee regime which has perpetrated the cruelest form of tyranny on the people since the days of Raj.
“The people of Bengal has not been subjected to such cruel torture since British period,” Shah who was on his third and final day of State tour told a gathering at Sukanto Nagar in Rajarhat New Town area where he met booth-level workers and mingled with voters in their houses and shared food with them said.
“I have been touring this State for the past three days and found the people in so much agony and poverty. No part of the country is poorer than this one,” he said adding “All your woes will go and Bengal will once again become as prosperous as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana,if you bring BJP to power.”
Once BJP Government came to power unemployment will go, agriculture will shine, infiltration will stop and the people will not have to rush to the High Court for organising a Durga Puja or Saraswati Puja, Shah said, describing a dream that voters tended to nurture before voting Mamata to power in 2011 and before their hopes dashed to the ground.
Striking a chord and telling people about the ‘overwhelming affection’ he got from the people he met, Shah said, “I have addressed lakhs of people but the affection and love I got here and at Bhawanipore —Chief Minister’s Constituency — where I went on Wednesday has won my heart,” even as a local woman blew conch shell at his arrival and mopped sweat off the profusely sweating leader’s cheek.
The leader is known to have asked the workers to open the party’s doors for all those who want to come from the other outfits and work hard by reaching out to the voters.
Shah had earlier alleged that under Mamata Banerjee Bengal had lost all its industries and had been reduced to a ‘bomb-manufacturing’ State.
Elsewhere, the Chief Minister launched a scathing counter attack on the BJP and its national president reminding a gathering at Alipurduar in North Bengal on how some people break bread with the poor people during the day to garner votes but dine in the five star hotels in the night.
This was a clear case of double standards she said adding how she had spent all her life among the poor. She added, “I go to slums everyday but do not call them poor people because it amounts to hurting their self respect. The BJP forgets that these poor people are all struggling masses.”
BJP was a party that was trying to browbeat its Opposition by threatening CBI and ED action, she said.
“They are afraid of the Trinamool Congress because they know that tomorrow
TMC will march towards Delhi and so they are invading Bengal and threatening us with the CBI.”
Sermonising people with lessons on true religious practices she said “Outsiders are coming to Bengal and organising Ram and Hanuman Pujas for political reasons. They are not Hindus but are selling Hinduism in the market for votes. Truly spiritual people practice religion within the heart and inside home like we do,” she said.
On Shah’s announcement of “Abki Baar BJP Sarkar (this time BJP Government)”’ Mamata said “Some people are trying to capture Bengal by engineering rift among the people but they must remember that Bengal has a different soil. If you try to sink your teeth here it will break. If you bite us we will break your teeth. We can even break your rib cage.”
Attacking the BJP Government for talking loud without clearing the State Government’s dues Mamata said “let them first handle Gujarat and then look towards Bengal. They have stopped giving dues and still we are taking Bengal ahead.”