West Bengal Assembly elections 2021: Narendra Modi holds rally in Kanthi, to visit Assam later today

Three days ahead of the first phase of elections in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have a packed day, first in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state and then Assam. The Prime Minister will start his day with a public meeting in Kanthi, West Bengal, at 11 am on Wednesday. Modi’s public meeting in Kanthi comes just a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched into an attack against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and accused her of starting scams and robbing the people of Bengal. On Tuesday, Shah, addressing a rally in the South 24 Parganas district’s Gosaba, said that Narendra Modi had started 115 schemes for the development of Bengal while Mamata was only leading 115 scams to rob them. The home minister once again emphasised that BJP will enforce the new law on citizenship as soon as it comes to power. Hitting back at the BJP and its leaders, Mamata accused them of using money to buy votes. “They will offer Rs 100, Rs 500, Rs 5000 to people and ask them to vote for the BJP. Do not forget this is people’s money. The money does not belong to the BJP,” Banerjee said at Kashipur in Purulia district. Warning the adivasi community, Mamata cited Jharkhand as an example and said the BJP ‘robbed the tribal people of land rights’ whereas Trinamool restored the land rights of tribals in West Bengal. “I will not give up even an inch without a fight, and I will fight against BJP until my last breath, ‘khela hobe’ [the game is on],” she said. Not just that, the Bengal chief minister referred to the BJP workers as “ruffians and demons” and at the same time asked her workers to guard the buildings where the EVMs will be stored after the voting is concluded. This is going to be the second time in three days when Modi will take the stage in Bengal. On Sunday, addressing a rally in Bankura, he said Mamata wouldn’t be the chief minister today if she had shown her true colours to the people 10 years ago. Modi further said the Bengal chief minister was could already see the writing on the wall and hence started questioning the EVMs. “You keep saying ‘Khela Hobe’ while people of West Bengal have decided ‘Khela Shesh Hobe’ (the game will end),” he said. The Trinamool and BJP are in a direct contest in Bengal. The BJP made huge inroads into the Mamata bastion during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, winning 18 seats and emerging as the direct competitor to the TMC. In the first of the eight phases of Bengal polls, 30 constituencies spread over five different districts will go to the polls on March 27.