KOLKATA: The BJP on Thursday trained all guns at the ruling Trinamool Congress by deploying its heavy artillery before the campaign ends for the first phase of the West Bengal polls scheduled to begin from Saturday in Junglemahal and part of East Midnapore.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir addressed rallies, while actor Mithun Chakrabarty held four roadshows in south Bengal.
Addressing a rally in Nandigram from where CM Mamata Banerjee is contesting against her former cabinet colleague Suvendu Adhikari, Adityanath said: “During the Left Front’s regime, 14 persons were killed here in the police firing 14 years ago. But the TMC supremo did nothing for the martyrs. After wresting power in Bengal, the BJP-led new government will prioritise two issues. One is building up ‘sonar Bangla’ and the other is putting all TMC goons behind bars.’’
Nandigram will go to the poll on April 1. Shah addressed two rallies in Namkhana in South 24 Parganas and Gopiballavpur in Jhargram, the hometown of BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh. “The CM is practising politics of vote bank in the state and depriving the poor living here. In this election, she will get a befitting reply from the Bengal electorates,’’ he said.
Gambhir held a roadshow in Sonamukhi in the Bankura district. Chakraborty, who was in a white kurta with a long saffron scarf loosely wrapped around his neck, led the first roadshow in Saltora in Bankura, while the second one was in Keshiary in the Paschim Medinipur district. Amid chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’, Chakraborty stood on a MUV, decked with marigold, and greeted the enthused supporters.