Keeping in mind the four-way contest in West Bengal in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today slammed the BJP as a "communal party" and urged the people to ensure that votes were not split.
"I am against BJP. Don't give a single vote to BJP. They are communal," the Trinamool Congress supremo told a party workers' meet here in Murshidabad district which has a sizeable Muslim population.
"Whenever elections come they rake up the issue of Hindutva, but don't get swayed by their designs," she said.
The BJP has fielded candidates in all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
She also said that the CPI(M) was "destructive" and Congress "corrupt".
"I was in (BJP-led) NDA for a little over a year, but our party was a fledgling then, and keeping faith in Atal Behari Vajpayee that he won't do anything against minorities, I went with them," she said, explaining her earlier association with the BJP-led front.
She claimed that BJP also wanted to divide Bengal and would try the same in several parts of the state from Darjeeling hills to other districts.
"Can Congress or CPI(M) defeat BJP? Only the Trinamool Congress can," she asserted.
Banerjee also decried comparison of Gujarat with Bengal and said that those doing so should be ashamed.
"Gujarat and Bengal are not the same. Riots take place in Gujarat, not in Bengal. We are proud to say that," Banerjee said referring to the 2002 post-Godhra riots.
Taking on the Congress, Banerjee alleged that the UPA government at the Centre was mired in scams and "skeletons kept tumbling out of their cupboard".
Claiming that the Congress had stabbed her party in the back despite an electoral alliance between the two, Banerjee said, "Congress had sabotaged us during the 2011 Assembly elections by fielding independent candidates against us where we had a candidate.
"Congress had played the role of Mir Zafar (a traitor)," she alleged.
"Congress, BJP and CPI(M) are together, everything is got-up, CPI(M) asks Congress for its support where it has some support and vice-versa, while they tell BJP to cut Trinamool Congress' vote as much as you can," Banerjee said speaking in the stronghold of WBPCC President Adhir Chowdhury.
"This got-up match must stop, don't allow votes to be divided due to this got-up match," she said.
"Congress and BJP have an understanding, they won't touch each other if any of them came to power and will look the other way on corruption charges," Banerjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister said.
On the comparison of Bengal with Narendra Modi-ruled Gujarat, she said, "Gujarat was given lakhs of crores of rupees after the earthquake (2001), Bengal did not get a single penny."
She said that while Gujarat was a rich state with business and entrepreneurship, Bengal's people were poor.
She pointed out that Bengal's child mortality rate was 31 compared to Gujarat's 42.
She reiterated that the CPI(M) had not done any development work in the state and ruined it during its 34-year-rule.
"CPI(M) is destructive, BJP is communal and the Congress is corrupt," Banerjee said.
The TMC had an alliance with the Congress in the 2009 general elections which won from all the three seats in Murshidabad district.