West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry against her nephew and Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Ruchira Banerjee. She also accused the Centre of targeting the women in her family instead of her.
Banerjee’s comments came a day after the CBI questioned Ruchira Banerjee in connection with an alleged coal scam. The chief minister had visited their residence on Tuesday, ahead of the interrogation.
“They call TMC tolabaaz [extortionist] and you [BJP] are the biggest dangabaaz [rioters],” Banerjee said, addressing a Trinamool Congress rally at Hooghly district, reported The Hindu. “You will call other parties tolabaaz, and what are you? A washing machine?”
Banerjee alleged that the women in her family were being targeted. “You are entering my house and targeting [my] own young daughters and daughter-in law who are 22-23-years old,” she said. “Our daughters and daughters-in- laws are all coal thieves and what are you, roaming around with coal thieves?”
Banerjee criticised the prime minister’s unveiling of railway projects that she had spearheaded, privatising the rail sector, and the Centre’s handling of the farmers’ protest. She also compared Bharatiya Janata Party leaders to the demon king Ravan, and alleged that the saffron party was corrupt.
“I will be the goalkeeper in the Assembly polls and the BJP will not be able to score a single goal,” she said, according to the Hindustan Times. “No Modi or Gujarat will rule Bengal, only Bengal will rule Bengal.” The West Bengal Assembly elections are likely to take place in April-May.
Banerjee also claimed that Modi would go through “worse fate than former United States President Donald Trump”. The American president lost the 2020 presidential elections to Joe Biden in January.
At the rally on Wednesday, many celebrities, including actors and athletes, shouted the slogan Khela Hobe (Game on) that the Trinamool Congress has adopted ahead of the polls. “The country is being ruled by a doitya [giant] and a danab [demons],” she said, according to NDTV. “They will try to break our spine. They will infiltrate. They will grab Bengal. What do you want? Bengal to stay Bengal or whatever the BJP makes of it? Gujarat will not rule Bengal.”
The schedule for the 294-seat West Bengal Assembly election is expected soon. The BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress party have engaged in political mudslinging in the run-up to the polls.
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