JALPAIGURI, April 16: Demanding a white paper on the investigations conducted by central teams in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that PM Narendra Modi who accuses her TMC of corruption should look in the mirror first.
Addressing an election rally at Mainaguri in Jalpaiguri district, Banerjee said it was the TMC which is fighting the BJP in the state, while the CPI(M) and Congress were working with it.
“BJP had sent 300 central teams to Bengal to investigate the allegations of corruption but they didn’t find anything. Now, PM Modi needs to answer the people of Bengal, what happened to the MGNREGA funds? Poor people worked under the scheme but were not paid,” she said, demanding a white paper on the investigations.
“The PM says TMC is a corrupt party. He should look in the mirror first. His party is filled with dacoits,” she added.
Raising the issue of demonetisation, Banerjee sought to know who benefitted from it.
She called the BJP an “anti-Bengali party”, and alleged that it was “planning to drive out” tribals, Dalits and OBCs in the “garb of NRC”.
“We won’t allow NRC in Bengal,” she asserted.
Upping the ante against the CPI(M) and Congress, she said, “Only the TMC is fighting the BJP in Bengal, while the other two opposition parties are working with it. We are with the INDIA bloc at the national level, but in Bengal, TMC must win to save the country.”
Banerjee claimed that if the BJP returned to power no more elections would be held in the country.
“There will be the rule of one man and one party,” she claimed.
The chief minister also took on the Election Commission, accusing it of not allowing the state government to rebuild the houses damaged by a storm in Jalpaiguri, Coochbehar and Alipurduar.
“Let the polls be over, we will rebuild those houses,” she said.
Claiming that the BJP-led government at the Centre did nothing for the ailing tea gardens of northern West Bengal, she said, “Our government has reopened 59 tea gardens and gave land rights to the workers who have been living there for decades.”
Banerjee alleged that some BJP members shouted “chor-chor”, targetting her convoy in the Chalsa area of the district.
“Just imagine their audacity. I am not even drawing my MP pension. I don’t take any salary. I travel in my own car and do not use a government vehicle. I wear simple clothes and lead a simple life. I even pay for expenses such as a cup of tea,” she said. (PTI)
