Vows party will do everything to send scamsters to jail
With the BJP preparing for a final showdown with the Trinamool Congress, its national president president Amit Shah on Sunday called upon the people of Bengal to go all out against the State ruling party by supporting the saffron outfit’s “oust-Mamata” campaign. Hitting Banerjee where it hurts most, the BJP president said his party would do everything to send those involved in the multi-crore Saradha ponzi fund scam to jail.
Shah was addressing a mammoth by-election rally at Bow Bazaar in North Kolkata in support of party candidate Ritesh Tewari who is contesting from the Chowringhee Assembly seat.
“Didi you sat on a fast for days in support of one or two thousands farmers who lost their land in Singur and Nandigram finally bringing about a Parivartan in Bengal. But why did you not sit on a fast or come down on the roads for the 17 lakh poor people who had lost their hard earned money in the Saradha scam!” Shah said literally scoffing at Banerjee.
Asking the Chief Minister to step down if she cannot rein in her goons, bring about development in Bengal, create employment, open industries and neutralise her corrupt partymen, Shah thundered, “the BJP is prepared to take up the challenge and develop Bengal by implementing the programmes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has amply shown his mettle in first hundred days in office.”
He warned Banerjee saying if “you do not quit by yourself then the BJP will oust you Didi from Bengal in 2016.” The Parivartan that the people of Bengal brought by ending the 34-year left rule and bringing Mamata Banerjee to power failed to bring about the desired result as “there is no difference between the Trinamool and the CPI(M). They are maternal cousins and are equally dangerous for the State.”
Attacking Banerjee for looking after the interests of those illegal migrants, Shah said the Chief Minister was busy only in serving the interests of the infiltrators from Bangladesh whose numbers have gone up by five times in the past three years.
Calling upon the voters to back the BJP in large numbers, Shah said the party should win both the Assembly seats of Chowrunghee and Basirhat as the party should make its maiden entry into the State Assembly to raise its voice against the injustice and crime being perpetrated by the Trinamool Congress against the people.
The by-elections are going to be a litmus test for the BJP which is aspiring to come to power in 2016. Incidentally the party had done well in the general elections from these two Assembly segments. While it trailed by about 1600 votes in Chowrunghee it has led by 33,000 votes in Basirhat seat.
The BJP president who earlier attended a brainstorming session of the BJP State committee meeting reportedly prepared a roadmap for the party for its what insiders called “mission 2016” when the State goes to polls. Shah prepared a three-member high-powered committee comprising State BJP president Rahul Sinha, Party MP SS Ahluwalia and its Bengal observer Siddharthnath Singh for liaison with the central leadership.
He also created a five-member team that would take care of various issues like law and order, information technology, political issues etc and report accordingly to Rahul Sinha.
The mood exhibited by Shah in the rally was also seen in the State committee meeting, insiders said, adding he had asked the State leaders to aggressively take on take on Trinamool. The BJP chief also insisted that Saradha was going to be the party’s trump card and the main political plank in the coming by-polls on September 13 and the civil elections and Assembly polls thereafter. “If the issue of One thousand farmers can be used by Mamata Banerjee to pull down the left Government then why cannot the BJP do the same by raising the issue that has affected 17 lakh people!” he reportedly told the leaders in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Trinamool Congress said it would lodge a complaint against BJP president Amit Shah with the Election Commission for “violating electoral code of conduct by using Government premises for elections campaign.” Trinamool MP Sudip Bandopadhyay said, “We will go to the Election Commission as Shah was using the Kolkata Port guest house from where he is giving instructions relating to the Chowrunghee Assembly by-elections.”
Bandopadhyay also said that the Centre should not use the CBI as a”political tool of a particular party” while investigating the Saradha scam.