Mamata Banerjee claims Central forces forced people to vote for BJP in Bengal, accuses Modi of running parallel govt in state

Basanti: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused Central forces in the state of coercing voters to cast their vote in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in several areas. “I respect the Central forces. But some of them are coercing voters to vote for BJP. I heard they opened fire on locals at one booth. How can they campaign in favour of Modi? Tomorrow, when Modi will be ousted from power, where will they hide?” asked Mamata while addressing an election rally in support of Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Pratima Mondal, who she has fielded from the Joynagar Lok Sabha constituency. [caption id=“attachment_4271913” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] Continuing her attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the TMC supremo accused him of running a parallel government in the state. “Narendra Modi is running a parallel government in Bengal in the guise of elections. We are tolerating everything silently. Our decency shouldn’t be mistaken as our weakness. You people have insulted me and Bengal. You don’t even allow me to run the government,” she said. “They are not allowing me to run the government. Law and order is a state subject. They do not have the power to interfere in our matters.” Equating the prime minister with the likes of Hitler and Mussolini, she accused the incumbent government of creating an atmosphere of terror and violence. “Narendra Modi is running a dictatorial regime. Nowhere in the world would you find such an oppressive government. The BJP has carried out atrocities on Dalits, minorities. In the name of gau raksha, they carried out lynchings. They have created an atmosphere of terror and violence,” she said. Voting took place today in eight parliamentary constituencies in the state — Tamluk, Kanthi, Ghatal, Jhargram, Medinipur, Purulia, Bankura and Bishnupur — on Sunday, 12 May. Apart from this, re-polling was held at booth number 116 in the Barrackpore parliamentary constituency and booth number 110 in the Arambag Lok Sabha seat in the state. As per the Election Commission, the overall voting in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls in all seven states till 3 pm was 46.52 percent. Jharkhand recorded 54.09 percent voting till 3 pm. Earlier in the day, the BJP accused Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers of attacking BJP candidate from Ghatal Bharati Ghosh’s convoy and obstructing her entry into a polling booth in Keshpur. West Bengal unit BJP chief Dilip Ghosh alleged that TMC goons had been threatening BJP workers since Saturday and had stopped his party workers from going inside a polling booth in West Medinipur’s Rampura to cast their votes.