Bengal polls: Why 15, Amit Shah can stay in state for 365 days, says CM Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA/MALDA: Union home minister Amit Shah can stay in Bengal for 365 days instead of 15 days as he proclaimed, CM Mamata Banerjee said on Friday. "It won't help him, though. The more people see his face, the fewer votes his party will get," she said at a rally in Malda's Harirampur.

At another rally in Old Malda, Banerjee said, "Bengal does not like you (Shah). Nor does the country. You have ruined so many lives through demonetisation and now SIR... people won't forgive you."




Alleging that Shah has been going around promising plump posts and threatening people. "Motabhai moves around in a 40-car cavalcade. He goes on dialling people, promising lucrative positions to some and threatening others. One day he called me up! I replied what I had to," she said.

The CM added: "They (BJP) can't fight us face-to-face. That is why they have brought police, goons and arms from outside. Yesterday, BJP killed a block sabhapati in Nandigram. You have made the SP say that the person consumed poison. We all know at whose behest the SP is working. An attack has taken place in front of my house. But I have let it go. This is BJP's culture."

"By reading from teleprompters, they promise to build ‘Sunar Bangla'. On the other hand, they disrespect Bengal's icons and stop funds for developmental schemes in Bengal," Banerjee said. She went on to allege that BJP was trying to impose ‘its brand of Hindutva' upon people and were trying to change history texts. "They have removed Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam from history books. They want people to read history manufactured by them. That history... it's like poison."

She also asked people not to give bank details to anyone, claiming that BJP might deposit Rs 500 and try to "buy off votes".

In her third rally of the day in Raiganj, Banerjee attacked BJP for not renominating economist Ashok Lahiri from Balurghat. "In the Lok Sabha polls, we lost by 3,000 votes. The result? BJP didn't give ticket to Lahiri. They don't want gentlemen in their party," she said.

The CM also said that BJP was planning to bring in the delimitation bill in the next session. "Through delimitation, they want to divide Bengal. Do you want them to divide Bengal again? Don't you want to eat what you wish to? Don't you want to speak in your mother tongue?" Banerjee said.