PTI, KOLKATA/DINHATA: Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee Wednesday went for each other’s jugular in battleground West Bengal, with the prime minister castigating “speedbreaker Didi” for stalling the state’s development and the TMC chief hitting back warning he will face a “voter strike”.
Modi, who kicked off his Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal with back to back rallies in Siliguri and Kolkata, hit out at Banerjee over a host of issues including alleged lack of development, perpetuating family rule and for seeking proof of Indian Air Force’s retributive strike on terror camps in Pakistan to avenge Pulwama killing of 40 CRPF troopers. Not the one who would take things lying down, the West Bengal chief minister mounted a blistering counteroffensive, mocking Modi’s “56-inch chest” and claiming his government did nothing to save the lives of the CRPF jawans despite having “information” about the impending terror attack.
“We are nationalists not fascists,” she asserted. Modi launched his campaign, all guns blazing, as he targeted Banerjee, calling her the “speedbreaker” in the path of the state’s development who wanted poverty to stay so her “politics of poverty” can flourish. At both the rallies, Modi slammed opposition parties for seeking proof of the damage done by the Indian Air Force in Pakistan’s Balakot where terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed’s training camps were targeted.
“While your chest swelled with pride and you held your head high, some people began crying and shouting here,” he told the rally at Siliguri. “When the wound has been inflicted there (in
Pakistan), why do you (the opposition) feel the pain. The ‘didi’ sitting in Kolkata felt the pain more than those in Islamabad, Lahore and Rawalpindi,” Modi said, taking a swipe at Banerjee, who had demanded proof of the extent of damage inflicted during the IAF raids in Balakot. He accused both the Congress and the TMC of “perpetuating family rule”. “In 55 years that a family ruled India, it stifled the talent of young people and spread the poison of casteism in society. It is being repeated in West Bengal where the aunt (Mamata Banerjee) and nephew (party MP Abhishek Banerjee) are looting people,” he alleged.
