Former West Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, came down heavily on his previous party --- the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) --- at his first BJP rally in Howrah on Sunday.
“The end of TMC has begun. We (BJP) would reach the target of winning more than 200 assembly seats set by Shah (home minister Amit Shah) in the coming elections. Today, people of Bengal are frustrated. There is no employment, no industry...law and order has reached the rock-bottom. The government has done nothing for the minority and has just used them as a vote bank,” former TMC heavyweight Banerjee, while floating the slogan “Cholun Paltai (let’s change)”.
Six TMC leaders, including a former minister, joined the BJP at Shah’s residence in New Delhi on Saturday evening. They were flown to Delhi in a chartered plane after Shah’s two-day trip to West Bengal had to be cancelled because of a minor blast in the national capital.
Smriti Irani began her speech in Bengali. “You (Mamata Banerjee) have deprived the farmers of Bengal for two years from central benefits. It is because in TMC no work is done unless you get cut money. Where there is theft there is TMC. So people of Bengal have decided that this time TMC will go out and BJP will come in,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}Smriti Irani began her speech in Bengali. “You (Mamata Banerjee) have deprived the farmers of Bengal for two years from central benefits. It is because in TMC no work is done unless you get cut money. Where there is theft there is TMC. So people of Bengal have decided that this time TMC will go out and BJP will come in,” she added.
{{/usCountry}}Top BJP leaders hinted that more TMC leaders from Kolkata and South 24 Parganas, two bastions of the state’s ruling party, could join the BJP over the next three weeks.
Several district level leaders of the TMC and Congress joined the BJP in Sunday’s programme.