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BJP steps up attack on TMC before fifth phase of polls
Forty-five seats go to the polls during the fifth round of the eight-phase elections on April 17.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday stepped up its attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal as Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, and party chief JP Nadda, held several public meetings ahead of the fifth phase of polls.
Forty-five seats go to the polls during the fifth round of the eight-phase elections on April 17. The BJP is looking to wrest power from the TMC, which is looking for a third straight term.
Shah assured the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland will be resolved.
Singh accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee of inciting the public to resort to violence and said she sensed her defeat in the polls.
Addressing a rally in the Darjeeling district, Shah assured that a political solution to the long-drawn “Gorkha problem” in the hills will be reached once the BJP was voted to power in the state and that the Gorkhas need not agitate.
“I promise that a permanent political solution to the Gorkha problem will be reached by the double-engine government of the BJP — one at the Centre and the other in Bengal. You will not have to resort to agitations anymore,” he told the crowd.
In Madhyamgram, Singh said Banerjee had realised that her party would lose the polls and was therefore inciting people to resort to violence.
“Perhaps, Mamata Banerjee has accepted that she too is going to lose. It is evident from her desperation and the language she is using for her political opponents. She is inciting people to resort to violence,” he told a rally.
Speaking on similar lines, Nadda told a roadshow in Purba Bardhaman, “Mamata’s condition is like that of a defeated player in a game. She has done injustice to the people of the state for many years. The BJP, however, will usher in development, stop atrocities on women and create jobs for youth, if voted to power.”
Hitting out at the BJP over its poll promises to the Gorkhas, TMC spokesperson Tapas Roy said: “The statements made by Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) and the home minister are all jumla (false promises). They say different things in different places to confuse the crowd. Even the Gorkhas know that earlier too, they (BJP) had made such promises on at least three occasions. They were not met.”
