KOLKATA: Home Minister Amit Shah asserted on Wednesday that no one can stop the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and said the people will elect Narendra Modi as the prime minister in 2024 to set the foundation for the BJP to form the government in West Bengal in the 2026 assembly polls.
Using Trinamool Congress’s signature venue in front of Victoria House in Esplanade to mark its annual Martyrs’ Day on July 21 as a launch pad of the campaign in the run-up to the next year’s Lok Sabha elections, Shah launched a blistering attack on Mamata Banerjee making it clear that the contentious CAA would be implemented in the country despite the West Bengal CM’s resistance.
“Bengal is gripped by infiltration, appeasement, political violence and corruption. CAA is now an act of the country and no one can stop its implementation. It will definitely be implemented despite Mamatadi’s resistance,” said Shah while addressing the rally.
Shah also urged to vote for the BJP in such a volume in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections so that Narendra Modi feels proud of Bengal. Though the Home minister had set a target of 35 Lok Sabha seats out of 42 in Bengal, he did not mention any number of seats as a goal in the next year’s general elections. In 2019, the BJP had bagged 18 LS seats.
“The people of Bengal are saying Didi aapka samay ab samapt ho chukka (Didi, your time is up now). Modiji sends lakhs of corers of rupees to ensure welfare in Bengal, but the syndicate raj in the state doesn’t allow the funds to reach the poor. You should remember that in order to bring the BJP government in power here in 2016, you will have to lay its foundation in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and ensure that you make Modiji Prime Minister of the country again,” said Shah in his 25-minute speech.
Reiterating Hindutva rhetoric, Shah did not miss the opportunity to play the Ram mandir issue as a political card.
“The CPI(M), Congress, and TMC were against the Ram temple. The Prime Minister will participate in the installation of the Lord Ram idol in Ayodhya on January 22,” he announced.
Shah cited figures of the Centre’s grants for West Bengal during the regime of NDA and compared it with the UPA government’s tenure while castigating Mamata for staging demonstrations in protest against the dues from the central government and rubbishing her allegations.
He also urged people to throw out her government by electing the BJP in the next assembly polls in 2026 and asked them to lay its foundation by supporting the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
He said, "Give so many seats to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls that Modiji says I have become PM due to Bengal."
The Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won the last assembly polls by "rigging" but the BJP jumped to 77 seats from zero, he said, calling upon people to end the TMC's alleged misrule of corruption, infiltration, and political violence by electing a government conducive to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of development.
The syndicate run by the Trinamool Congress, Shah alleged, is not letting huge sums of money sent by the Modi government to reach the state's poor.
He cited figures to assert that the Centre's funding for the state through various schemes has risen many times under the BJP than the Congress-led UPA, of which Banerjee was also a member.
Lauding the turnout at the rally, he said this indicates the people's mood and claimed that the BJP will come to power with two-third majority in the state in 2026.
The BJP's performance in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will create the foundation of its win in the assembly polls, he said.
Hitting out at Banerjee over the suspension of the Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, he said she may try to silence him but cannot silence people of the state.
Her time as the state's chief minister is over, he said, often referring to her as 'didi'.
Shah also dared Banerjee to suspend from her party some of its leaders arrested in corruption cases and said she could not do it as she apprehended that they may implicate her nephew, a reference to MP Abhishek Banerjee.
"The people of Bengal are fed up with the cut money and syndicates of TMC," he said.
The home minister said as many as 212 BJP workers have been killed in West Bengal in political violence and added that people will avenge these murders with their votes in the 2026 assembly polls.
Banerjee has destroyed West Bengal, Shah alleged, citing political violence, corruption, and appeasement in state.
The state's development is Modi's top priority but it can only happen when there is a government conducive to the prime minister's agenda, he said.
He urged people to ensure a big win for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
"We must ensure that the BJP forms the next government in West Bengal. To achieve this, we must win the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from the state in the next Parliamentary elections," Shah emphasised, echoing sentiments expressed during an April rally when he set a target of winning over 35 seats in the state.
The Union minister was addressing the rally at the historic Esplanade, with an eye on setting the tone for the party's Lok Sabha campaign in the state.
It was from the same venue in 2014 that Shah, as the then BJP president, had launched the party's 2016 assembly poll campaign in the state.
This time, the state police had denied his rally permission but the BJP moved the Calcutta High Court, which dismissed the administration's contention and allowed the public meeting.
The party had won 18, its highest ever, of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. At the rally Shah was joined by the state party leadership and Union ministers from the state.
(With inputs from PTI)
