Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday resumed her election campaign after days of rest with a no-holds-barred attack on the BJP daring it to cross 200-seat marks while wondering why the saffron Government has to dispatch central agencies and peddle about a “mischievously designed” Citizenship Amendment Act to win elections if it is so confident of winning 400 seats in the general elections.
Addressing an election rally at Krishnagar in favour of her party candidate Mohua Moitra the expelled Trinamool Congress MP, Banerjee said, “the BJP is telling that they will win more than 400 seats … if it is so then why are they sending ED, CBI, Income Tax and NIA … if they have done so much of work for the people of the country then where is there a need for sending central agencies at the doorsteps of our candidates.”
Banerjee was advised rest last month after she had tripped inside her home and injured her head. She resumed her campaign from Krishnagar.
Alleging how “Mohua Moitra was tortured in Parliament and was expelled from Lok Sabha because she was raising questions against the BJP Government,” Banerjee said, “even now they disturbing her … but there is no point doing so as she will defeat the BJP candidate by many miles.”
Raising the CAA issue Banerjee said it was a “mischievous trap,” laid for the gullible electorate that would make them vulnerable to National Citizenship Register.
“I have repeatedly been saying that CAA has been designed to win votes by misleading the voters … but the truth to be told CAA is the head and NRC is the tail … this is a trap to turn legal citizens into foreigners … if you fall in the trap of the CAA then they will catch you in the trap of NRC,” Banerjee said adding there was no guarantee that all who would apply in the CAA would be given citizenship.
“If it is such a foolproof law then why the BJP leaders are not applying for citizenship … how the BJP leaders became MLAs, MPs or government officials and how they general people are casting their votes and getting various government schemes if they are not the citizens of this country … this is a law that has been made to befool the people … once a person submits an application through this CAA one will concede that he is not a citizen and will then become vulnerable to whims and fancies of the BJP,” Banerjee said. Referring to BJP’s slogan of “Abki Baar … 400 Paar (beyond 44 this time round),” Banerjee said, “I challenge them to cross 200-seat mark first … they will not return to power … in 2021 they had said that they would get more than 200 seats but ended up getting 77 seats in Bengal Assembly elections … this time also they will not get more than 200 seats.”TMC’s Mohua Moitra is pitted against BJP’s Amrita Roy a scion of the local royal family of 18th century Raja Krishnachandra and CPI(M)’s Md Saadi backed by the Congress. Saadi is a former MLA from Palashi Para Assembly seat.