West Bengal will see 'Parivartan' as Mamata Banerjee has wished for, BJP going to form next govt in state: Amit Shah tells CNN-News18

Union home minister Amit Shah said that BJP will get a full majority in the West Bengal 2021 Assembly Election and the state will see a ‘Parivartan’ as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has wished for. In an exclusive interview to Network18’s Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi on Monday, Shah said, “If Mamata-ji (Banerjee; West Bengal Chief Minister) wishes that the BJP should run the government in West Bengal, I promised that her wish will be fulfilled soon as people of Bengal are looking for ‘Parivartan’. The BJP will form the next government in the state with full majority.”[caption id=“attachment_8110201” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File images of Mamata Banerjee and Amit Shah. News18[/caption] Shah’s statement comes two days after Banerjee blamed the central government of adding to the woes of migrant workers with the nationwide lockdown. “Migrant workers are facing problems because of the sudden lockdown announcement made by the Centre without keeping the states in the loop. I had earlier told Union Home Minister Amit Shah that if his government feels that we cannot handle the COVID-19 crisis, why don’t they (Centre) handle it on their own? This is not the time for doing politics. Where will we keep these migrant labourers for institutional quarantine? Who will take the responsibility if number of COVID-19 cases increases? Bengal is facing a very tough situation due to COVID-19 and Amphan. We need time and space to tackle it. I request the prime minister and the Union home minister to look into the matter to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the state,” she had said. Reacting to Banerjee’s statement, Shah said, “I cannot run Bengal because I am a ‘sansad’ (MP). But I would like to assure that her wishes will be fulfilled as BJP is certainly going to form the government in Bengal with full majority. The law and order situation has collapsed completely in Bengal and we will fulfil her wish by forming the next government there.” This is not for the first time when Shah has claimed to form the government in Bengal in 2021. On October 17 last year, in an exclusive interview to Network18’s Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi, Shah had said, “My prediction is that BJP is going to form the government in West Bengal with two-thirds of majority.” He had said, “Earlier, there was doubt among the people of Bengal whether BJP will win or not. When I used to say that we will win 20 seats (in Bengal), people used to doubt me. Now the doubt is no longer there after we won 18 seats (in the last Lok Sabha polls). In three seats, we lost with a margin of 5,000 - 7,000 votes despite atrocities and rigging. I would like to say that BJP will form the next government with two-thirds of majority in Bengal.” With nearly 40 per cent vote share, BJP had managed to win 18 of the state’s 42 Parliament seats and emerged as a main challenger before Mamata Banerjee in last Lok Sabha polls.