Mamata snubs PM 'offer', says Bengal can make Vidyasagar Statue

Kolkata, May 16: A day after the Election Commission (EC) invoked Article 324 and curtailed campaigning by a day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday stuck her neck out to allege that the poll body was hand in glove with the BJP.

Speaking in Mathurapur in South 24 Parganas, Banerjee said,''Modi today said he will build a new statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar but we don't need your help, they were the ones who broke it. If you break the statue of Ambedkar, Gandhi, Tagore and then say you will rebuild it, people of bengal will not forgive what 'goonda' Amit Shah has done."

"Last night we came to know that the BJP had filed a complaint with the EC so that we can't hold any meeting after Narendra Modi's meeting. EC is the brother of the BJP, earlier it was an impartial body now everyone in the country says EC has sold out to BJP."

She added, "I feel sad but I don't have anything to say, I am ready to go to jail for saying this. I am not scared to say the truth."

Earlier in the day, Modi ​promised to build a new statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar at the same spot where the Bengali writer and philosopher's statue was vandalised.