Union Home Minister Amit Shah addresses a press conference at the Vajpayee Bhawan on April 30, 2024. | Photo Credit: PTI
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on April 30 alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did not attend the Ram temple inauguration ceremony in Ayodhya, as she was afraid of offending her “infiltrator vote bank”.
Mr. Shah, while addressing a rally at Memari in Purba Bardhaman district, said this Lok Sabha election is about deciding whether people want “parivar raj” or “Ram rajya” in the country.
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“For years, people of our country and Ram devotees wanted a Ram temple to be built in Ayodhya. But the Congress, TMC and the communists didn’t want it. Invitations for the consecration ceremony were sent to both Mamata didi and her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee), but they did not attend it, as she was afraid that infiltrators, who are her party’s vote bank, might get offended,” he said.
Ms. Banerjee had accused the BJP of trying to politicise a religious event by attempting to put up a “gimmick show” ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Hitting out at “dynasty politics” in TMC and other parties, Mr. Shah said the Opposition is “entangled in corruption” and “parivarvaad”, which stand against the very idea of India.
The Home Minister accused Ms. Banerjee and her nephew of unleashing atrocities on BJP workers, as they are “afraid” of the saffron camp, sensing that their “farewell from the seat of power” is imminent.
“Both Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek are scared of the BJP. Owing to this insecurity, they do not allow our leaders to book hotels and get cars. Even if the hotels get booked, TMC goons vacate those. I want to tell her that BJP workers are not perturbed by this. No matter how hard she tries, her farewell from power is certain,” Mr. Shah asserted.
This election is also about deciding whether you want the nephew as chief minister of West Bengal or Narendra Modi as prime minister of India, he said.
Also Read | BJP opposed to ethos of Bengal, says TMC’s Abhishek Banerjee
Mr. Shah also accused Ms. Banerjee of “misleading” people on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and “welcoming” infiltrators for vote bank politics.
“Why is she against refugees obtaining citizenship? She is supporting infiltration in Bengal, but opposes Hindu refugees getting citizenship,” he said.
Ms. Banerjee had recently claimed that if the Opposition bloc INDIA comes to power, of which the TMC is a part at the national level, it would repeal the CAA by bringing in a new law in Parliament.
The Centre had last month implemented the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, notifying the rules four years after the law was passed by Parliament to fast-track citizenship for undocumented non-Muslim migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who came to India before December 31, 2014.
Mr. Shah, referring to the neighbouring State of Assam, said the BJP, after coming to power in 2016, had solved the “perennial problem of infiltration”.
“Assam faced a similar problem of infiltration. The people of the state voted the BJP to power and now it is rid of this problem. In Bengal, too, only the BJP can end the menace of infiltration,” he said.
The Home Minister also said it is the BJP that can end the TMC’s “rule of corruption and cut money” in West Bengal.
On the incidents in Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district, where allegations of sexual abuse against TMC leaders have emerged, Mr. Shah said it is a matter of shame that “Mamata Banerjee, despite being a woman chief minister, tried to protect the culprits”.
“For years, atrocities continued under her rule. To get some votes through appeasement, you are protecting the criminals of Sandeshkhali. The BJP will punish these culprits,” he asserted.
Mr. Shah accused the Chief Minister of maintaining a stoic silence to carry on TMC’s “vote bank politics”.
The senior BJP leader said the party has set a target of winning 30-plus Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal.
“Give Modi ji more than 30 seats from Bengal, and he will ensure that people here get free medical treatment of ₹5 lakh each,” he said.
