BJP will get ‘rosogolla’ in West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Apr 19: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will get a 'rosogolla' (zero) in West Bengal in the general elections, asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aim of winning a large number of seats will remain a daydream.

Banerjee said the Prime Minister's promise of offering 'laddoos' to the voters of Bengal in both their hands will never be fulfilled.

Mentioning a popular Hindi adage, she said, "Delhi ka laddoo - jo khaya wo pastaya (whoever has eaten laddoos of Delhi has regretted), they will get a big zero in Bengal this time," she said at two election rallies in North Bengal's Dakshin Dinajpur district.

Before the 2016 Assembly elections in West Bengal, PM Modi had said in public meetings that if the people vote the BJP to power in the state, they would have 'laddoos' in both their hands, with one as the NDA government at the Centre and the other in the state.

Taking a jibe at the BJP's aim of winning at least half of the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, Banerjee said, "In 2014 they got two seats, they will get a rosogolla (zero) here this time."

Rosogolla, the famous sweetmeat associated with the name of Bengal, is also colloquially referred to when someone gets a zero in an examination.

Asserting that the saffron party will not get past 100 seats across the country in the general elections, the TMC supremo claimed that in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala they will not win any seat. "In Uttar Pradesh they had 73, I doubt whether they (BJP) will get even 13 seats this time around," she said, adding that the saffron party will not be able to win a single seat in the North Eastern region and Odisha.

Lambasting Union minister Arun Jaitley for having said that elections in Bengal will spring a surprise, the firebrand TMC leader said, "I also say there will be surprise for them by getting a big zero."

The minister, who is in-charge of the BJP's publicity committee, had on Thursday tweeted that "North East, Bengal and Odisha will be the biggest surprises of this Lok Sabha election."

Referring to Jaitley as the "kettle Finance Minister of the chaiwala Prime Minister," Banerjee said PM Modi "has got a biopic made in his name and what not for his publicity, only making shoes in his name is yet to be done."

"Five years ago he said he was a chaiwala. Now he says he is a chowkidar. After losing the elections, what will be left with him is his chowki (cot in Bengali)," she said.

The Chief Minister claimed that the TMC will win all the five seats for which elections have been held in the first two phases in the state, including in Darjeeling, which BJP won in 2014. Banerjee claimed that if Narendra Modi comes back to power, people will lose their right to free speech.

She urged adivasis, who constitute a fair percentage of voters in Balurghat constituency where she held the two campaign meetings, not to vote for the BJP, claiming that the saffron party has brought upon them a lot of atrocities.

The Chief Minister urged the central forces deployed in West Bengal to work in tandem with the state police, saying that the administration is there for them to work impartially.

PTI