BJP winning 122 seats in Bengal so far: Shah
Targeting the BJP at her rally in Nadia district, Banerjee accused her adversaries of spreading the Covid-19 pandemic by holding rallies and bringing in people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Union home minister Amit Shah said on Sunday the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will win at least 122 of the 180 seats where elections have been held in the first five phases in West Bengal, adding that chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government was on its way out as she would lose the Nandigram seat in the assembly polls.
Shah held two rallies in the state on Sunday, with three phases of the elections still remaining. The results of the polls will be declared on May 2.
“Mamata Banerjee’s defeat is inevitable. She has been chief minister for 10 years. So, we cannot offer her an ordinary farewell. It must be a grand affair and you can ensure that by giving the BJP more than 200 seats. I pray that her foot gets cured before May 2,” Shah said at a rally in Swarupnagar in North 24 Parganas, referring to Banerjee’s leg injury because of which she is using a wheelchair.
Reiterating his allegations on extortion and violence during the TMC’s rule, Shah, while addressing a rally at Purbastahli in East Burdwan district, said: “Didi (Banerjee) has set up a new model of government. It is the model of bomb, bandook (guns) and barood (explosives). We want to set up the mode of vishwas (faith), vikas (development) and vyapar (business) so that a sonar Bangla (golden Bengal) can be set up. Only Narendra Modi can ensure that.”
“Didi is demoralised after five phases of elections as it has been established that the BJP, with more than 122 seats, is much ahead of her. Take it from me, Suvendu Adhikari (BJP nominee) is winning the polls from Nandigram,” he said.
Targeting the BJP at her rally in Nadia district, Banerjee accused her adversaries of spreading the Covid-19 pandemic by holding rallies and bringing in people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
“Modi is a liar. He told lies during demonetisation. He said everybody would get ₹15 lakh in their bank accounts. He won the polls but nobody got the money. He lied during lockdown. There was window of five to six months during which people could have been vaccinated. I asked them (Centre) so many times to let us (state) buy vaccines for 10 million people of Bengal. They did not allow us. Today, Maharashtra says it has no medicine. We are running out of medicines,” said Banerjee.
“Now they are bringing thousands of people from other states. They are spreading the pandemic,” she added.
Alleging that the Election Commission was showing an “unfavourable attitude” towards her, she said: “Earlier they had taken away an entire day of my campaigning. Now in the last three phases, it has curtailed campaign time by 4 days...I will not be able to address 20 meetings in south Bengal districts.”
With inputs from agencies
