KOLKATA: Making blistering attacks on the ruling Trinamool Congress in the poll-bound West Bengal, the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the BJP would come to power in the state and send corrupt people to jail one after another.
While addressing the BJP’s organisational meeting in Barrackpore in the northern outskirts of Kolkata, Amit Shah said that in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, BJP had 39 per cent vote share and in 2021 assembly polls the party had won 77 assembly seats with 38 per cent votes in the state.
"BJP government will be formed with an absolute majority. Our vote percentage will cross 50 in the upcoming elections," he said.
Amit Shah, escalating his attacks on the Trinamool Congress government, raised issues from corruption, godown fire which claimed the lives of 25 workers, infiltrations etc under Mamata Banerjee’s regime.
Shah alleged that Mamata Banerjee, in a bid to make her nephew Abhishek Banerjee the Chief Minister of Bengal, turned a blind eye to matters related to his corruption.
“Corruptions have been given an institutional shape by Mamata Banerjee. Corruptions have reached more than Rs 1000 crore, but she is turning a blind eye on it,” Shah alleged.
In his speech, he also mentioned the names of Trinamool Congress leaders who had been jailed on charges of different corruptions and raised questions, “Will they be given tickets this time to contest in polls? Mamata will give them tickets; otherwise, they will divulge the name of her ‘bhaipo’ (nephew) in corruption issues.”
The state education minister, Bratya Basu, said Shah's remarks were detached from political reality and claimed that the BJP would not even cross the 50-seat mark in the state.
“Shah will keep coming and going like a tourist. Such visits will serve no purpose,” Basu told reporters on the sidelines of a programme.
The BJP will not even cross the 50-figure in the upcoming assembly polls and will suffer a humiliating defeat,” he added. Bratya also said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had already taken responsibility for the affected families in the godown fire incident.
"The CM herself has taken responsibility for the affected families and personally handed over compensation to the families of the fire victims. However, several questions are being raised. Allow me to place some facts on record," Basu said.
He cited similar incidents in BJP-ruled states Gujarat and Rajasthan to challenge Shah’s criticism. Many affected families of the victims of two separate incidents of fire in the two states last moved the court after they did not receive compensations promised by the governments of the two states, he alleged.
Earlier, Amit Shah had addressed several other rallies of his party in Bengal but was apparently silent on corruption issues involving Abhishek.
He also accused Mamata of “providing shelter to infiltrators”, institutionalising corruption and deliberately obstructing border security measures for electoral gains.
“The BJP would secure the border in 45 days if it came to power,” he said adding, “The way infiltration is taking place in Bengal, it has become a security issue for the entire country. Even after court orders, the Trinamool government is not giving land to the BSF for border fencing because infiltrators are its vote bank."
Shah also made a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee government, alleging, “Administration and police in the state were not stopping illegal migrants, who were being sent across the country using fake documents.”
Referring to the recent fire incident at a momo factory in Anandapur near Kolkata, the Union Home Minister alleged, “It was not an accident but the result of the corruption of the Mamata Banerjee government”. He questioned why the factory owners had not yet been arrested and wondered whether their “proximity” to the ruling party was the reason.
“Has the administration completely ceased to exist in Bengal?” he asked. He also accused the Trinamool of opposing a discussion on Vande Mataram in the Lok Sabha to appease infiltrators, and called upon voters to “uproot” the Trinamool Congress regime and establish a “government of patriots and nationalists” in Bengal.