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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Akhilesh, Mamata unite in attack on PM’s Bengal claim
In a rally in Chanditala in Hooghly district, Modi on Monday warned Banerjee that her MLAs will abandon her after the results of the Lok Sabha polls are out. He claimed that 40 of them were in touch with him.
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief, Akhilesh Yadav, on Tuesday hit out at Narendra Modi for claiming that 40 lawmakers of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) were in touch with him and demanded that the Prime Minister be banned from contesting elections for 72 years.
“...Did you hear the Prime Minister’s shameful speech? After losing the trust of 125 crore countrymen, he [Modi] is now relying on the unethical assurance of defection the 40 MLAs [members of legislative assembly] have allegedly given. It is not him, but his black money mentality speaking. He should be banned not for 72 hours but for 72 years,” Yadav tweeted.
The BJP described Akhilesh’s his statement as “senseless”.
The Election Commission has barred leaders like Uttar Pradesh chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, and SP’s Azam Khan from campaigning for 72 hours, or three days, over their intemperate election speeches.
TMC chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee also called for cancelling Modi’s candidature, who on Tuesday said he was “shamelessly indulging in horse trading”, a day after he claimed 40 TMC MLAs were in touch with him.
In a rally in Hooghly, Modi on Monday warned Banerjee that her MLAs will abandon her after the results of the Lok Sabha polls are out. He claimed that 40 of them were in touch with him. “When the lotus [BJP’s election symbol] will bloom all over Bengal after May 23, Didi [Banerjee], you will see that your MLAs will also abandon you and run away. Forty of your MLAs are in touch with me even today,” Modi said.
“Given the number of my (party) members (in the state Assembly), this will make them guilty of breaching anti-defection laws. You are talking of unconstitutional and illegal things. You are violating the Constitution while holding a constitutional position. You have no right to be the PM,” Banerjee added.
The anti-defection law does not apply when two-thirds of a party’s total legislators quit together, and in such a scenario, they will not get disqualified. The TMC won 211 out 294 assembly seats in 2016.
“Look how shamelessly he is indulging in horse trading. His candidature should be immediately cancelled,” she said.
The TMC wrote to the Election Commission on Monday —their fourth plea to the poll watchdog since Saturday — alleging that Modi’s speech indicates an “impending horse-trading” and asked the poll panel to cancel his nomination for such “provocative and undemocratic” statements. In the letter, TMC demanded “strong action” for the “unfounded, inappropriate and illegal” campaign of the prime minister. “You (EC) are thus requested to ask Mr Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister, for evidence in support of his statement, failing which his nomination should be cancelled for violation of the Model Code of Conduct..,” the letter said.
In response, BJP spokesperson Chandra Mohan said: “Akhilesh ji is the master of senseless talks... He is not able to grow out it. And his party’s losing streak will continue from 2014, to 2017, to 2019, and beyond.”
Reacting to Banerjee, Bengal BJP unit president Dilip Ghosh said that TMC cannot stop leaders from deserting the party. “About 100 TMC MLAs are keeping in touch with us (the state leadership). Only 40 of them are in touch with Modi-ji,” he said.
