KOLKATA: Low visibility on Saturday prevented Prime Minister Narendra Modi from reaching Taherpur in West Bengal, to address a scheduled political rally. The PM’s helicopter could not land in Taherpur due to poor visibility conditions and returned to the Kolkata airport. The PM later addressed the rally virtually over the phone, calling on the people of West Bengal to give a chance to the BJP.
“I apologise that bad weather prevented me from reaching the venue in West Bengal’s Nadia,” the PM said while addressing the Taherpur rally over the phone.
Modi said the recent Bihar election results, in which the NDA won, have also opened up doors for the Bharatiya Janata Party’s victory in West Bengal. He urged the people to give a chance to the BJP to form the government in the state.
“We will make all efforts to bring development in Bengal. Give the BJP a chance to form a double-engine government in the state,” the PM said, adding that the Left rule had destroyed Tripura during its three-decade rule, but the northeastern state is now developing rapidly after embracing the BJP.
Slamming the ruling Trinamool Congress government of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the PM alleged infiltrators enjoy the TMC’s patronage in West Bengal. He further said that the TMC is opposing the SIR exercise, whose purpose is to clean up the electoral rolls, to save infiltrators from getting identified.
“Infiltrators are determined to capture Bengal, and they are dear to the TMC. This is the real face of the TMC, and to protect them, the party is opposing SIR. What the Communists and Leftists, those with ‘red flags’ destroyed our neighbouring Tripura, was reversed when the people gave us an opportunity, and we worked to fulfil their aspirations,” said the PM.
The PM further called on the people of Bengal to be vigilant about the TMC’s conspiracies, claiming they are using all possible power to protect infiltrators. “I saw on social media that some people put up ‘Go Back Modi’ boards. It would have been better if ‘Go Back Infiltrators’ were written on every street and pole in West Bengal,” he said.
Let the TMC oppose me and the BJP as much as it wants, but Bengal’s progress should not be stopped, he said further, adding that the Central government’s attempts to ensure modern connectivity to West Bengal’s far-flung areas are suffering on account of backwardness.
“In West Bengal, such is the government that it is involved in cut and commission. Projects worth thousands of crores are still stuck. I want to say it clearly – let the TMC oppose Modi a thousand times and oppose the BJP with all its strength. But I fail to understand why the development of West Bengal is being stopped,” the PM stated.
The PM assured the crowd that the BJP will end the TMC’s ‘Maha jungle raj’ in Bengal, where corruption, nepotism, and appeasement politics are ruling the roost.
“The country wants fast-paced development, and that is why the people of Bihar gave the NDA a huge mandate. After the election results, I said the Ganga’s flow would move from Bihar to West Bengal. Bihar has shown the path for the BJP’s victory in West Bengal. Bihar rejected ‘jungle raj’, and now we must free West Bengal from its ‘maha jungle raj’,” the PM said, possibly using the reference for the first time for the TMC rule in Bengal.
An official earlier said there was dense fog in the area where the Taherpur helipad is located. The PM’s chopper hovered over the helipad for a while before the pilot decided to return to the Kolkata airport.
PM Modi’s Taherpur address is his first political rally in West Bengal after the publication of the draft electoral rolls amid the ongoing SIR exercise.
In Nadia district, the PM was also scheduled to inaugurate national highway projects.
The visit comes in the midst of a heated political debate over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls exercise. The SIR is being conducted ahead of the Assembly Elections due early next year.
“The people of West Bengal are benefiting from numerous pro-people initiatives of the Central government. At the same time, they are suffering due to the TMC’s misgovernance in every sector,” the PM posted on X yesterday. “The loot and intimidation of the TMC have crossed all limits. That is why, BJP is the people’s hope,” he added.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress has been protesting over the SIR exercise, alleging that the same is being conducted in “haste”. The ruling party has claimed that a large number of genuine voters, particularly refugees, risk disenfranchisement due to SIR.
The draft electoral rolls published after the enumeration phase showed that over 58 lakh names have been excluded, bringing down the total electorate to 7.08 crore.
Agencies