PM Modi says Didi didn't take his calls, Mamata responds with a jibe

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of neither receiving nor returning his calls to assess the losses incurred by cyclone Fani.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI Photo

KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of neither receiving nor returning his calls to assess the losses incurred by cyclone Fani. "Speed breaker didi tried her best to politicise the issue of cyclone. I tried to talk to her over phone to seek an update on the situation here. But such is her arrogance that she refused to talk to me. I kept waiting for her to call back but she did not," PM Modi said while addressing an election rally in East Midnapore district's Tamluk. "I called her for the second time as I was tensed about the condition of Bengal's people in the face of the disaster. I wanted to talk to her because she is the chief minister. But she did not talk to me for the second time as well," Modi said, adding that the Trinamool Congress supremo is "so filled with arrogance" that she puts her politics before the welfare of people. Responding to Modi, Banerjee said that she was unable to receive his calls as she was then camping at Kharagpur to closely monitor the possible advent of Cyclone Fani in the state. Banerjee while addressing a rally at Gopiballavpur sub-division of Jhargram Monday said: "I was in Kharagpur monitoring the cyclone but the prime minister's calls were made to my office (in Kolkata) so I could not respond to them." She said that Modi had called her for a meeting at Kalaikunda, where he landed for an election meeting after touring the cyclone battered Odisha. "Are we his servants that we have to go wherever he beckons? Now he will allege that I have not responded and have not shown cooperation." "My(poll) meeting at Jhargram today was fixed. Elections are on in West Bengal, while it is over in Odisha. Why should I share dais with an expiry prime minister during election time?" The TMC chief said Modi should get the "right lesson" in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls, whose fifth phase is being held Monday. "(Modi) Don't look at Bengal. You are going to lose for sure," she said. Continuing her attack against Modi, Banerjee, who has been among his severest critics, said "We don't want a government that tortures under Modi. We want peace not war ... First you (Modi) control Delhi. We will form the United India government at the Centre and there will be an effort to build a new India".