Union minister Giriraj Singh on Friday claimed that the end of the rule of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has begun, as she has been trying to suppress her political opposition in the manner of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, PTI reported.

“Ulti ginti [Countdown] has begun for Mamata Banerjee...fear of an imminent defeat has left her frustrated,” Singh told reporters in Patna at the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Bihar headquarters. “The treatment she has been meting out to her political opponents reminds us of King Jong-un.”

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Singh said that Banerjee has been contemptuous of the federal structure of the government, and does not regard Narendra Modi as the prime minister. The BJP leader also said Banerjee had never attended meetings of the NITI Aayog.

Singh parried a question about rumours that Janata Dal (United) leader and political strategist Prashant Kishor would help the Trinamool Congress. “I do not know whose help she is seeking,” he said. “But I am certain that she has ceased to get help from the common people of Bengal.”

On Thursday, Banerjee banned victory processions in West Bengal as she claimed they were creating law and order problems, and asked the police to take “strong action against BJP leaders if they try to create trouble”.

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She also refused to attend a meeting of the governing council of the freshly constituted NITI Aayog on June 15. Banerjee said in a letter to Modi that it was fruitless for her to attend the meeting since “the NITI Aayog has no financial powers and the power to support state plans”.

The BJP won as many as 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal during the 2019 elections, up from just two seats in 2014. The Trinamool Congress, on the other hand, won 22 seats as against the 34 it had won in 2014. Assembly elections are due in West Bengal in 2021.