E-Paper
'Change is imminent': PM Modi's Bengali pride pitch at Kolkata rally
“No matter how hard this tyrannical government here tries, it won't be able to stop change,” Modi said; Mamata's TMC has termed BJP a party of “outsiders”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a BJP rally in Kolkata on Saturday, sought to appeal to West Bengal's regional sentiment directly as he started his speech by greeting the crowd in Bangla.
“My dear brothers and sisters of West Bengal, I offer my heartfelt greetings from the depths of my heart,” he said, in the Bengali language. Watch video below:
He went on to praise the state as a place that pioneers new thinking. “The massive crowd at Brigade Parade Ground today is testimony to what Bengal is thinking today,” he said, continuing in Hindi.
He claimed that since “change is imminent”, the ruling Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is “perplexed”.
“No matter how hard this tyrannical government here tries, it won't be able to stop the storm of change,” Modi further said, pitching the upcming assembly elections as “not just about changing the government, but about saving Bengal's soul”.
The TMC has termed the BJP a party of “outsiders” as cultural pride becomes a central political issue in Bengal. The BJP managed to go up to its personal best of 77 seats in the 2021 assembly elections, up from just three five years earlier; but the TMC won its third consecutive victory with a massive 215 of the 294 seats. No no members from the Congress or even the CPI(M), which ruled Bengal for decades before Mamata unseated them, were elected; thus firming up the BJP's position as the primary opposition to the TMC.
This time, elections are due in April-May, and the BJP has been claiming the TMC's regime has been corrupt.
“First the Congress, then the Communists, and now TMC, these parties came one after another, filling up their pockets while development work in Bengal remained stalled,” Modi alleged at Saturday's rally.
“Bengal will again have the rule of law,” he further said, “TMC leaders accused of atrocities will not be spared.”
He also claimed that the TMC “neither works nor allows others to work as central schemes are stalled”.
CM Banerjee has repeatedly accused Modi's central regime of withholding funds for job-guarantee and other schemes.
Earlier at an official event, PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for various developmental projects worth ₹18,680 crore in West Bengal.
While addressing that gathering, he said these projects would give momentum to Bengal and wider Eastern India, He stressed that the completion of the Kharagpur-Moregram Expressway, in particular, would accelerate economic activity across the state.
