West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said the name and symbol of the Trinamool Congress had been "erased" from the state, referring to the Election Commission allotting different names and symbols to the Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy factions for the October 6 assembly bypolls.
"The name and symbol of the Trinamool Congress have been erased from the state," he said while canvassing for BJP's Nandigram bypoll candidate Hasirani Rath, PTI reported.
The TMC ruled West Bengal for 15 years before the BJP came to power in the state in May.
"The main thief will also go to jail," Adhikari said, referring to the arrests of several accused in corruption cases in the state without naming anyone.
He urged voters to ensure through their votes that all rival candidates lost their deposits in the bypoll.
"After winning by 15,505 votes in Bhabanipur, I had said there will not be any existence of Mamata Banerjee's party," Adhikari said, referring to the assembly elections.
"The party of Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee will not see the 'two flowers and grass' symbol in the EVM, no matter how much they try," he said.
Adhikari maintained that after receiving the Nandigram seat winner's certificate at Haldia on the night of May 4, he had asserted that all opposition parties, barring the TMC, would continue to exist in the state.
Adhikari, who has been involved in politics in Nandigram since the 2007 anti-land acquisition movement, urged voters from the minority community to support the BJP candidate.
"You (minority voters) will not get a better chance to extend the hand of friendship," he said.
The chief minister said there was no pressure on minorities to chant the 'Jai Shri Ram' slogan.
"If you don't want to say Jai Shri Ram, then don't; say Bharat Mata ki Jai," he said.
Adhikari said the TMC, which a large section of minority voters had supported in previous elections in Nandigram, had become non-existent, having split into two parties with new names.
Mamata All India Trinamool Congress candidate Sanchita Pradhan Dey has withdrawn her candidature after meeting Adhikari, PTI reported.
The chief minister said job creation would take place in West Bengal through industrialisation.
"It is my duty to bring back the migrant workers of the state and to give work to the youths," he said, adding that recruitment examinations were being conducted by the Public Service Commission.
Alleging that the previous TMC dispensation had indulged in "politics of appeasement", Adhikari said his government had "rectified" the laws governing OBC reservations and withdrawn a petition pending before the Supreme Court.
He said his government had published the merit list for recruitment of 12,000 police constables in a transparent manner and that there had been no protests over it.
"I will hand over appointment letters to the new recruits on October 11," he said.
Adhikari said the BJP government in the state would give appointments to one lakh people within one year, while maintaining all norms and transparency.
"Start counting from May 9, when I took oath as the chief minister in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," he said.
"I will bring out the report card after one year to show that what you (the Mamata Banerjee government) could not in 15 years, we can achieve in one year," he said.
Adhikari, who was the MLA of Nandigram from 2016, assured people that he would work more for the constituency than he had done earlier.
Bypolls will be held in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur and Rejinagar in Murshidabad on October 6, with counting scheduled for October 9.