Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a BJP rally in Kolkata on Saturday, sought to appeal directly to West Bengal’s regional sentiments when he began his speech by greeting the crowd in Bengali.
“My dear brothers and sisters of West Bengal, I extend my heartfelt greetings from the bottom of my heart,” he said in Bengali. Watch the video below:
He went on to praise the country as a pioneering place in new thinking. “The massive crowd at Brigade Parade today is a testimony to what Bengal is thinking about today,” he said.
He claimed that since “change is imminent”, the ruling Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is “at a loss”.
Modi also said: “No matter how hard this authoritarian government tries here, it will not be able to stop the storm of change,” touting the upcoming Lok Sabha elections as “not just to change the government, but also to save the soul of Bengal.”
The TMC has described the BJP as a party of “outsiders” as cultural pride has become a central political issue in Bengal. The BJP managed a personal best of 77 seats in the 2021 Assembly elections, compared to just three and five years before; But the Transitional Military Council achieved its third successive victory by winning 215 seats out of 294 seats. No member of the Congress or even the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which ruled Bengal for decades before Mamata ousted them, was elected; Thus strengthening the BJP’s position as the primary opposition to the TMC.
This time, elections are scheduled to be held in April-May, and the BJP has claimed that the TMC regime is corrupt.
“First the Congress, then the Communists, and now the TMC, these parties came one after the other and filled their pockets while development work in Bengal remained stalled,” Modi claimed at a rally on Saturday.
“Bengal will once again have the rule of law and the TMC leaders accused of atrocities will not be spared,” he added.
He also claimed that the TMC “is not working and is not allowing others to work as central plans have stopped.”
CM Banerjee has repeatedly accused the central Modi regime of withholding funds meant for job guarantee and other schemes.
Earlier, at an official ceremony, Prime Minister Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stones of several valuable development projects $18,680 crore in West Bengal.
While addressing the gathering, he said that these projects would give impetus to Bengal and eastern India more broadly, and stressed that the completion of the Kharagpur-Murigram Expressway, in particular, would accelerate economic activity across the state.
