Nine PM aspirants at Oppn unity show, mocks BJP chief

Tribune News Service
Kolkata, January 22

BJP president Amit Shah today ridiculed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, claiming that there were nine prime ministerial candidates at the Opposition unity rally she had organised in Kolkata on Saturday.

Launching his party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign in West Bengal at a rally in the communally sensitive Malda district, Shah said while the Opposition’s agenda was to remove Narendra Modi from power, the Centre wanted to remove poverty and unemployment.

He claimed bringing in 20-25 leaders on one stage would not serve any purpose as Modi would become PM again. Without naming anyone, he said out of the 23 leaders, who attended the Brigade parade ground rally, nine were potential PM candidates. “But, we have only one prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi,” he said. Shah dared Banerjee to make her stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill clear. “Banerjee will oppose the Bill because she is only concerned about her vote bank,” he alleged.

The BJP chief asked people to vote for the saffron party so that religious minorities from across the border driven to India because of majoritarian persecution could become legitimate citizens of India.

Shah said performance of the Banerjee government had been so miserable that people had now started thinking that the previous Left dispensation was better. He accused the Trinamool Congress government of destroying the state’s culture, and alleged that Banerjee had stopped his party’s rath yatra because she was afraid that the BJP would grow in popularity.

Accusing Banerjee of attempting to scuttle his visit by refusing permission to land his helicopter at the Malda airport, Shah said he was prepared to make a speech from an airborne helicopter. “The more you stop us and beat up our workers, the more the lotus will bloom in Bengal,” he added. He said: “Mahagathbandhan is all about greed and lust… They want a ‘majboor sarkar’ so that they can engage in corruption. We want a ‘mazboot sarkar’so that we can give a befitting reply to Pakistan. It is for the people to decide now.”

Unwell, shah likely to skip Jhargram rally

• Amit Shah returned to Delhi on Tuesday evening due to his ill health and is unlikely to attend his rally at Jhargram in Bengal.
• “Shah is very ill. He has high fever, but still attended rally on Tuesday. He was discharged few days ago after suffering from swine flu,” BJP Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh said.
• “If he is fine on Wednesday, he will attend the scheduled rally at Jhargram,” Ghosh said. pti