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Lok Sabha elections 2024: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday mocked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA’s target of winning 400-plus seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking at a campaign rally for Trinamool Congress candidate Mahua Moitra in the Krishnanagar area, Mamata Banerjee also dared the BJP to win at least 200 constituencies.
“The BJP is saying ‘400 paar’, I challenge them to cross the 200-seat benchmark first,” Mamata Banerjee said, according to PTI. “In the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, they aimed for 200 plus seats but had to stop at 77. Some of these 77 have since joined us.”
Dubbing the BJP as a ‘jumla’ party, the TMC supremo also accused them of “peddling lies” regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
On March 11, the Centre notified the CAA rules four years after the law was passed by Parliament. The CAA aims to confer Indian citizenship to persecuted non-Muslim migrants–including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians–who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan and arrived in India before December 31, 2014.
“The CAA is a trap to turn legal citizens into foreigners. Once you implement CAA, NRC will follow. We would allow neither CAA nor NRC in West Bengal,” Mamata Banerjee added. “Don’t fall for the false assurance of the central government.”
She added: “If you apply, you will be designated as a foreigner for 5 years,” Banerjee said while addressing her first rally in the election season after her injury earlier this month.”
There is no INDIA bloc in West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee
At Sunday’s rally, Mamata Banerjee also accused the CPI(M) and Congress – partners in the INDIA bloc – of “joining hands with the BJP” in West Bengal.
“There is no INDIA alliance in West Bengal. The CPI (M) and Congress are working for the BJP in Bengal,” she said, according to PTI. “I have formed this INDIA bloc and gave it this name. After elections we will look into it.”
The chief minister also urged the voters not to vote for the Left-Congress-ISF alliance candidates in the state as voting for them means “voting for the BJP.”
She also praised Mahua Moitra for fighting the BJP in the Parliament. “Despite Mahua Moitra being elected by you people (electorate), she was expelled unceremoniously,” Mamata Banerjee said.
She added: “We have again re-nominated her from this seat. Mahua was expelled as she was most vocal against the BJP in parliament. You people have to ensure her victory with a record margin,” she said.
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