Launching a frontal attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday alleged the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo is running West Bengal on a ‘3T model’ - “Tanashahi” (dictatorship), “Tolabazi” (extortion) and “Tushtikaran” (appeasement).
While hitting at West Bengal Chief Minister, Union Home Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will run the state on a ‘3V model’ – ‘Vikas’ (development), ‘Vishwas’ (trust), and ‘Vyapar’ (business).
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The Home Minister, who was addressing a public rally for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Cooch Behar’s Sitalkuchi, reiterated that the TMC chief would “lose” from the Nandigram Assembly seat.
“The BJP will win more than 50 out of the 60 seats that went to polls in the first two phases of elections in West Bengal. Bengal is looking for ‘Parivartan’ (change) and let me tell you one thing that there is no doubt that Didi is losing the Nandigram seat. In North Bengal also, the people will give her a befitting reply for her step-motherly attitude,” he said.
Expressing confidence in the BJP’s victory in the electoral battle, Shah also used the occasion to highlight the promises made by the saffron party for the state’s development with particular emphasis on North Bengal.
“I would like to assure you that after May 2 when we will form the government in West Bengal then North Bengal will be our topmost priority. As promised in our manifesto, we will give Rs 2,000 crores to the North Bengal development board for your development. There will also be a battalion of Rajbanshi youth, to pay tribute to Narayani Sena. Cooch Behar is just 700 km away from Kolkata but for Didi, North Bengal is 7, 000 km from her heart,” he said.
Shah also claimed that if voted to power, the BJP will take up lots of development work, including building an AIIMS at Cooch Behar.
“There will be AIIMS and one central university in North Bengal. There will be ‘Kadambini Ganguly Health Infrastructure Fund’ with a corpus of Rs 10,000 crore to ensure that every district has a government medical college along with the district hospital and block health care attached with ‘Jan Aushadi Kendra’,” he said while pledging to fulfill the dream of ‘Sonar Bangla’ in the next five years.
The Home Minister’s remarks come as election campaigning for the third and fourth phases in West Bengal has reached its peak today.
Voting for the high-voltage West Bengal Assembly elections, which is witnessing a direct confrontation between the TMC and BJP this time, is being held in eight phases. West Bengal recorded a voter turnout of 80.53 percent in the second phase of the assembly polls earlier on Thursday.