West Bengal election 2021: 'Didi betrayed you, blocked Centre's welfare schemes', says Narendra Modi

With the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly election exactly a week away, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday made a strong pitch for a "double-engine sarkar" and accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of being a "wall" against development in the state.

"Wherever there are BJP governments in the states, the Centre and state governments are engaged in the service of janata-janardan with the power of 'double engine'," he said.

He was addressing a poll rally in Kharagpur, which was his second poll rally in three days. The prime minister will address a rally in poll-bound Assam's Chabua later in the day.

The ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP are running a high-octane campaign to secure power in the upcoming polls. While one of the BJP's campaign lines is to accuse West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of nepotism, the ruling TMC has sought to paint the saffron party as 'outsiders'.

Modi's speech on Saturday focused largely on claiming that Mamata had blocked the Centre's welfare schemes, like Ayushman Bharat, from being implemented in the state.

"Here in West Bengal, didi (Mamata) has become a wall in front of every plan of development. You trusted didi, but didi betrayed you," he claimed.

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He added that the Centre has approved funds for a total of 33 lakh pucca houses in West Bengal, but "many of them are still not completed". "Didi feels that if all these schemes benefit people, then they will bless Modi," he said.

"The people of West Bengal are demanding a 10-year account from the government. Mamata gets angry if one asks for the account of the Amphan cyclone," he said.

Modi also spoke about the alleged killing of 130 BJP workers by TMC activists since the 2018 panchayat elections.

"She has wasted 10 very crucial years of the youth of Bengal. Her party stands for cruelty, and its syllabus is tolabazi, cut-money, syndicate and is a training centre for harassing and troubling people," Modi claimed.

Modi also reiterated the BJP's charge that Mamata gives her nephew (bhaipo), Abhishek Banerjee, preferential treatment.

"The country is steadily moving towards a single window system. But a different type of single window system has been made in West Bengal. This is a single window — bhaipo window. Nothing can happen in West Bengal without going through this window," he said.

The BJP has accused Abhishek of running syndicates that extort money from the public. In local parlance, 'syndicates' refer to gangs run by TMC goons who sell substandard construction material to people at exorbitant rates, PTI reported.

"In the last 10 years, the Trinamool government did everything that was going to stop employment and self-employment opportunities here. Many old industries were shut down due to Trinamool recovery gangs, syndicates. There is only one industry here — the mafia industry," Modi alleged.

Rejecting the tag of 'outsider', the prime minister said, "The BJP is the only real party of Bengal. Syama Prasad Mookerjee founded Jana Sangh, the BJP's forerunner. He was the son of Bengal."

Mocking Mamata over the TMC's 'khela hobe' slogan, Modi said, "Didi's game will be over and development will start."

Listing the BJP's initiatives for the Paschim Medinipur district, Modi said, "In this year's Union Budget, a massive provision has been made for Medinipur. We're taking steps to convert the fishing harbour in the region into an economic hub."

He also promised that if BJP was voted to power in the upcoming polls, the government would improve facilities like agriculture and irrigation.

"Agriculture, irrigation and cold storage facilities in this region will be made better. We'll also improve the healthcare facilities and rural roads. We'll ensure Clean drinking water to every household in the region," he said.

With inputs from PTI