West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday criticised the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of attempting to polarise voters ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in the state. Banerjee said that those indulging in politics based on religion should get a befitting reply in the polls.
“It is not that easy to divide people based on 70:30 [Hindu and Muslim vote share] ratio,” she said, during an address to booth-level workers in Nandigram – where she will contest the polls. “For us, all are equal. We don’t differentiate people based on calculation and religion.”
She also accused her former close aide and now BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari of playing the Hindu-Muslim card. The chief minister asked him not to teach her Hindu dharma as she belonged to a Brahmin family. “I would like to tell him that I belong to a Brahmin family and he should not play the religion card with me...first tell me whether you are a good Hindu...one of its principles is to love humanity,” Banerjee said. “Don’t teach Hindu dharma to me.”
The chief minister said that she chose to contest the polls from the Nandigram seat as the public supported it. She added that she had planned to contest from Singur, and told the crowd: “I am taking permission from you to file nomination...If you don’t want me to file the nomination, I will not, but if you consider me your daughter then I will move ahead with filing my nomination.”
Nandigram is the stronghold of Adhikari, one of the top leaders of the Trinamool Congress who switched sides to join the BJP ahead of the eight-phased election. Trinamool Congress leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay will contest in Banerjee’s place from Bhowanipore in Kolkata, where the chief minister contested for the last decade.
Without taking Adhikari’s name, Banerjee said that she was amazed that she was being called an “outsider”. She said that the only difference between her and the BJP leader was that his hometown was in Medinipur and hers in Birbhum district. “I heard some people are calling me an outsider in Nandigram,” she said. “...today I have become an outsider? What about those coming from Rajasthan and Gujarat? Are they insiders in Bengal?”
She also recalled how the Trinamool Congress stood behind people during the Nandigram movement. “When the movement was on in Nandigram and there was Kali Puja at home, I did not go home,” Banerjee said. “I stayed here to help the people. On March 14, 2007, when the firing took place, I was here... trying to enter Nandigram... I did not go away. The governor called me. He said, ‘leave the spot. They will throw petrol bombs at you. They will try to kill you’. The next day Anisur [former TMC leader Anisur Rahman] brought me here on his motorbike. I walked and reached Tamluk hospital. The CPM never imagined that I could do this.”
Banerjee also recited passages of hymns to the deity Durga, and said that the BJP could not teach her Hinduism. “Do you want to play this game,” she asked. “I have shown you that I know the mantras to Goddesses Lakshmi, Saraswati, Kali and Durga. It is not the same as you do, memorising some lines before the elections and spewing them at meetings.”
The elections to the 294 seats in West Bengal will be held in eight phases from March 27 to April 29. The results will be declared on May 2. The state will see a three-cornered fight between the Trinamool Congress, the BJP and an alliance between Left parties, Congress and the Indian Secular Front.
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