‘Will win over 200 seats in West Bengal’: Amit Shah
“I tell people in Nandigram that if they bring about a change (by defeating Mamata) then it will reflect in rest of Bengal as well,” Shah said.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said if the people of Nandigram assembly constituency, from where West Bengal chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is contesting polls, decides to bring about a ‘poriborton’ (change) then it will reflect in the rest of the state as well.
Shah, who is expected to be in Nandigram next week to address a rally, said, “I tell people in Nandigram that if they bring about a change (by defeating Mamata) then it will reflect in rest of Bengal as well.”
BJP’s Suvendhu Adhikari, a one-time Mamata confidant who recently switched sides, is the BJP’s contestant from Nandigram.
Addressing the media after the first phase of polling in Assam and West Bengal on Saturday, Shah said the party expects to improve its tally and retain power in Assam and is expecting to win at least 26 of the 37 seats that went to polls in West Bengal.
Shah said the fact that polling in both states, especially in West Bengal, was peaceful without any incidents of violence or casualties is a good sign for the future of democracy. As per estimates of the election commission, 84 per cent turnout was recorded in West Bengal while in Assam it was 79 per cent.
While the ruling TMC in West Bengal has said that the high voter turnout is indicative that people have voted in favour of the state government, Shah said the trend suggests otherwise.
“The turnout in West Bengal and Assam shows the excitement of the voters. Till a few years ago the eastern states were known for political violence, but no one was killed, and no incidents were reported yesterday, and this is a good sign for the democracy,” he said addressing the media.
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To a question about the TMC’s allegation - that the BJP was trying to influence the election commission and the conversation was caught on tape - Shah said the question to ask is who was taping the phone conversation. “The conversation should be heard properly; the leaders are talking about the demand made by us to the EC for the transfer of some officials which is on record. But who is tapping the phones?” he questioned.
He went on to say that there were some apprehensions about the election process being vitiated but the election commission has been able to conduct elections peacefully. “Media had stopped covering violence in the state (WB) assuming this is part of the process,” he said.
However, the TMC on Saturday alleged discrepancies in the voting process and said there was a mismatch in the voter turnout data issued by the election commission.
The TMC also tweeted that some voters in Kanthi Dakshin assembly seat had alleged that they voted for the TMC but the VVPAT showed the BJP symbol. Responding to the TMC’s charge, Shah said that the polling agents of the TMC have not been able to flag a single instance of violence or election malpractice.
While the BJP has been asserting that it will retain power in Assam and improve its tally in the state, it has set itself a task of winning 200 plus seats in West Bengal where it is fighting a pitched battle against the TMC.
In the previous assembly election in West Bengal, the party had won just three assembly constituencies. It however improved its vote share and the seats by winning as many as 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. Shah recently told HT in an interview that his estimate of winning over 200 seats in West Bengal is based on the party’s performance in the 2019 general election.
“In West Bengal, there was an atmosphere of appeasement, unchecked illegal immigration and funds for social schemes were being usurped... people were also unhappy about the relief operations after the cyclone Amphan and the corona pandemic. After 37 years of the Left rule, people had expected the TMC to bring a change but there was no improvement in the situation, only the symbol and the party’s name changed. The situation became worse. But we have now given people hope by putting forth our vision of sonar Bangla,” he said.
To a separate question on the alleged phone call between Banerjee and a BJP leader from Nandigram who has claimed that the CM urged him to rejoin the TMC, Shah said, “Everyone has the right to draw up support for themselves, she was doing that too.”
The home minister also slammed the TMC for suggesting that the Prime Minister’s two-day visit to Bangladesh, where he visited the Matua community’s shrine in Orkandi, is a breach of election norms. “The party should know that election laws are limited to within India, this was a foreign visit to strengthen bilateral relations. Besides, the Prime Minister has not said anything about the election,” he said.
Shah also had a cryptic reply to a question on an alleged meeting between NCP leaders Sharad Pawar and his party in Gujarat. “Everything need not be made public,” he said. The meeting assumes significance in the wake of allegations against the role of Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh by the former police chief of Mumbai Param Bir Singh.