Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed an election rally in West Bengal’s Coochbehar. Charging against the ruling Trinamool Congress, Shah said the party’s goons cannot stall BJP’s march to power. 

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“Mamata didi (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) doesn’t need your votes. She thinks her goons will win the election for her,” Shah said, adding that the upcoming election in West Bengal will be historic. “BJP’s ‘booth pramukh (head) will fight aginst your ‘goonda (goon) pramukh’. And you’ll not win this fight,” he added. 

Amit Shah is leading the BJP charge in West Bengal, going to polls in April this year, and has held several rallies in the past month seeking to increase the party footprint in the state.

The ruling Trinamool Congress is wracked by an exodus of veterans and others alike first, more so since the Lok Sabha elections that saw the BJP winning 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. The saffron party’s vote share went up from 17% in 2014 Lok Sabha elections to 40% in 2019 and the number of seats grew f

Railing against the ruling party, the former president of the saffron party said such an environment was created in the state that raising “Jai Shri Ram” slogans has become a crime. 

“Mamata didi (CM Mamata Banerjee), if slogans of Jai Shri Ram are not raised here, will it be raised in Pakistan?” Shah asked, before telling the crowd to raise the slogan. 

He implied that Banerjee had a problem with the slogan as she wanted to appease a “particular community” to garner votes. 

“I am promising by till the time election ends Mamata didi will also say, ‘Jai Shri Ram,'” he said.

Speaking on the alleged infiltrators, Shah said the BJP would free West Bengal of infiltrators in five years, if voted to power. “Uproot the Trinamool government and we will give you Sonar Bangla in five years,” he said.

“All schemes of (PM) Narendra Modi that you and your nephew have stopped now, you will not be able to stop after May as you won’t remain the CM,” he added.

Modi government works for “jan kalyan” (public welfare), Mamata for “bhatija kalyan” (nephew’s welfare), Shah said.

Bengal assembly polls fight between Narendra Modi’s “development model” and Mamata Banerjee’s “destruction model,” the former party president said at Coochbehar. 

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Shah alleged that more than 130 workers of the BJP have been killed by TMC goons, but no action was taken. “Once our government comes to power, each of the murderers will be sent to jail,” he said.