West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of playing divisive politics and claimed that she did not “bring religion into politics”, PTI reported.
Ahead of the bye-election in the Bhabanipur constituency in Kolkata, Banerjee sought to win over voters from different communities. She spoke to the members of the Gujarati, Jain and Marwari communities. Earlier this week, she had visited a mosque and a gurdwara.
Banerjee said in Bhabanipur that the BJP raised questions about her visit to the mosque, according to The Hindu.
She added: “They [the BJP] are making the videos of my visit go viral. Yesterday [Wednesday] I went to a gurdwara. I covered my head and went. I do Kali Puja. When I go to gurdwara or do Kali Pujo, the BJP doesn’t object to it.”
Banerjee claimed that the BJP ran a similar campaign in Nandigram. The BJP had claimed that Nandigram would become Pakistan if the Trinamool Congress won, The Telegraph reported.
“Hindustan will never become Pakistan,” the chief minister said. “India can never be handed over to people with a Talibani mindset. Our Hindustan will become an even better Hindustan, and Bengal will protect all of Hindustan.”
Banerjee said she did not discriminate among religious communities. “It is the BJP which destroys brotherhood and social fabric among communities,” she was quoted as saying by PTI.
Banerjee needs to win the Bhabanipur bye-poll, scheduled to take place on September 30, to get elected as an MLA and continue as the chief minister. The BJP has fielded lawyer Priyanka Tibrewal against her.
On Thursday, Banerjee also sought to win the support of the constituency’s business community by recalling how she had opposed demonetisation.
“I know the kind of harassment the business community has gone through during demonetisation,” she said, according to PTI. “I used to regularly visit Burrabazar (the business hub of Kolkata) and talk to the business community members.”
She accused the BJP-led government of trying to sell off the whole country. “Railways, airports and ports, they want to sell everything off,” Banerjee said. “Can you sell the soil of the country?”
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