The bell has rung, Nadda tells Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata, Apr 15: BJP president J P Nadda Wednesday hit out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for the language she used against BJP top leaders and for disrespecting the culture of Bengal and said the bell for her departure has already rung.

Contending that the BJP is the true upholder and protector of Bengal's culture, Nadda said that the saffron party has worked to spread the messages of great philosophers and thinkers of the state who provided direction to the people of the country.

Nadda said that it is BJP which has been spreading the messages of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahans, Swami Vivekananda, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Syama Prasad Mookerjee throughout the country.

"Are the words used by her for Modiji (PM), Amit Shah during her campaigns and the adornments she used with my name the culture of Bengal?" he asked.

"So it is we who are insiders, we who are the protectors of Bengals culture. You (Banerjee) have disrespected the culture of Bengal while we have given it the appropriate respect," the BJP chief asserted while addressing a public meeting of the party at Jamlpur in Purba Bardhaman district.

Banerjee has often called BJP a party of outsiders, meaning a party of poeple from other states.

Nadda claimed that the chief minister is doing 'Chandi path' (reciting hymns of Goddess Chandi) with the election in mind after denying permission for the immersion of Durga idol and holding of Saraswati puja in the state.

"She may ring the bell (in a temple) as much as she wants, but the bell for her departure has already rung," he said.

Banerjee has politicised the police and criminalised politics in the state in her 10-year-long rule to give a free run to extortion, corruption and cut money culture, the BJP president asserted.

"I urge you (people) to exercise your franchise to ban her (Banerjee) permanently for the sake of development of the state," Nadda said at another rally at New Town in Kolkata.

The BJP president said that on one side there is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who spreads the ho asks message of 'sab ka sath sab ka vikas sab ka viswas' for the collective development of 130 crore people of the country, while on the other side there is a political leader (Banerjee) who asks people of a community to get united. Why is she doing this and against whom?

"Her (Banerjees) anxiety has reached such a point that being a chief minister she is asking people to gherao CAPF jawans," he said.

Maintaining that the Election Commission had banned Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours for her comment asking people of a particular community to unite, Nadda wondered at the kind of government in West Bengal for the last 10 years (under TMC) "which works for dividing the society".

He said, It is astonishing that the chief minister did not spare a word about the killing of first time voter Ananda Barman, a dalit youth at the hands of TMC goons at Sitalkuchi."

Barman was killed in the fourth phase of the ongoing state poll on April 10.

The death of every person is unfortunate, including that of the four persons who died in firing by central armed police force personnel when a mob allegedly tried to snatch their firearms and the voting machine also at Sitalkuchi.

Banerjee should have spoken of Barman also while she expressed her deep sorrow for the loss of lives of the others, Nadda said.

Reacting to Nadda's allegation, TMC MP Saugata Roy said that the BJP presiident need not give lessons to the TMC government on the issue and claimed that Dalits in Bengal are in a much better condition than in BJP-ruled states.

Roy said that the TMC after returning to power in Bengal will ensure assistance for everyone who died and there will be no discrimination.

Paying his espects to B R Ambedkar, the father of Indian Constitution on his birth anniversary, Nadda alleged at a rally at Katwa that under Banerjee's leadership TMC leaders are insulting Dalits so many years after Independence.

Claiming that a woman TMC leader had recently used derogatory words against people of scheduled castes and backward classes people, he said "Mamata didi has not said a word castigating the leader for her remarks, proving the TMC's anti-Dalit stance."

At another poll meeting at Asansol, Nadda said that Bengal's turnaround is not possible until the people of the state have an honest leadership and claimed that this time all the combinations for a real "parivartan" (change) are in place.

Maintaining that a BJP government has to take over for ensuring the economic development of the state, the partys president said "What the people of Bengal are looking for is not just a change, but to regain its lost glory and recreation of Sonar Bangla (prosperous Bengal)."

Earlier in the day, Nadda took part in a well-attended road show at Bongaon in North 24 Parganas district.