Mamata Banerjee has not paused her election campaign despite her leg injury.
New Delhi:
Mamata Banerjee, dialing up her campaign pitch against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders touring Bengal for polls, referred to “Duryodhana and Dushasana”. She also appeared to call her former party man turned BJP rival in Nandigram, Suvendu Adhikari, “Mir Jafar”.
“Say farewell to BJP, we don’t want BJP. We don’t want to see Modi’s face. We don’t want riots, looters, Duryodhan, Dushasana… Mir Jafar,” the Chief Minister said at a rally in East Midnapore. “On March 27, Khela Hobe (game on). BJP has to be bowled out.”
Mamata Banerjee railed against her former lieutenant Suvendu Adhikari, who joined the BJP in December, accusing him of betraying her when she trusted him blindly.
“I wouldn’t have been able to come here. Today I am free to come anywhere in Midnapore. Earlier I used to ask where should I go? I gave them blind love and they betrayed me. They were in touch with BJP since 2014. I am sorry I trusted them,” she said.
Targeting PM Modi, who had yesterday turned her “Khela Hobe” slogan against her in a detailed takedown while campaigning in Purulia, Mamata Banerjee called him a copycat.
“Modi uses a teleprompter and says Kemon Aacho Bangla (How are you Bangla)? We say Bangla bhalo aachey (Bengal is good). Poriborton is my slogan. Why will you steal my slogan, you copycat? Khela Hobe,” she said, addressing the gathering in her wheelchair, as she has been doing since she suffered an injury in Nandigram. She implied, once again, a BJP role in the incident in which she was hurt.
“I have injuries on every part of my body. Elections are near. So they thought they will injure my legs,” alleged the Chief Minister.
In earlier rallies, Mamata Banerjee has used the names “Dangabaaz (rioter)” and “Daitya (demon)” to target the BJP’s top two leaders without naming them.
The Prime Minister on Thursday tore into the Chief Minister and Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress and said: “Didi, O Didi – you played for 10 years. Khela shesh hobe, vikas aarambh hobe. (Now your game will be over and development will begin).”
The countdown had begun, PM Modi said. “On 2nd May Didi is going. Ashol Parivartan (real change) is coming.”
The two-time Chief Minister, considered almost invincible after she ended decades of Left rule in Bengal, faces a BJP determined to wrest power.
Bengal will vote in eight rounds from March 27. The results will be announced on May 2.