Union Home Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Shah, who is on a two-day visit to West Bengal ahead of the assembly polls early next year, hit out at state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the 'outsider vs insider' discourse that has currently held the Bengal electocracy by storm.
The Home Minister called the attack on BJP national president JP Nadda's convoy, during the latter's Bengal tour earlier in the month, as an "attack on democracy".
Condemning the assault, Shah said that it speaks volumes about the law and order situation in West Bengal, for which he said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government was responsible. Meanwhile, he also trained his guns on the "BJP as outsider" rhetoric peddled by the ruling party in the state.
Amit Shah said that this time, the BJP is set to form a government in the state, noting that there is an "overwhelming demand for change of regime". Amid roaring applause, the Union Home Minister declared that the chief ministerial candidate for the saffron party will not be an 'outsider', as Mamata Banerjee is trying to portray. It will be an individual from West Bengal itself, who will challenge Mamata become the next Chief Minister, Shah said.
“Does she want a country where people from one state will not visit another?" reports quoted Amit Shah saying on this day, "Did she call Indira Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, Narasimha Rao outsiders when they used to come to West Bengal? But don’t worry, no one from Delhi will come to defeat you. Someone from Bengal will challenge you and be the next CM of the state.”
Promising to transform West Bengal into 'Sonar Bangla' once again, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday asserted that only a "son of the soil" will become the next Chief Minister in case the BJP won the 2021 Assembly elections.
Amit Shah said BJP workers have decided to respond to the violence in a democratic manner. In Bengal, people have made up their minds to uproot the Mamata government. He said, "We will form a government with more than 200 assembly seats in Bengal.
"I assure you that the next CM of Bengal will definitely be a son of the soil when the BJP comes to power next year. The next CM nominee will be a Bengali only," Shah told media persons in Bolpur.
The former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President said that many people were now joining the party in Bengal to voice their protests against the Mamata Banerjee-led state government's "misrule". "We will form the next government in Bengal with more than 200 Assembly seats," he said.
Amid much fanfare, Shah led a grand roadshow in Birbhum district this afternoon. The roadshow started from Hanuman Mandir on the Stadium Road in Bolpur and ended at the eBolpur Circle.
"I haven't seen a roadshow like this in my life. This roadshow shows the love and trust of people of Bengal towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi. People of Bengal want a change," he claimed.
"Anger prevails across Bengal; the state has deviated from the path of development. Bengal once used to lead the nation in every possible aspect but is now lagging. The Narendra Modi-led BJP government at the Centre wants to transform Bengal into 'Sonar Bangla' once again," Shah said.
Shah held the rally at Bolpur after visiting the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's Visva Bharati University and paying floral tributes to him on the Santiniketan campus. He also visited Shyambati in Birbhum where he along with BJP state President Dilip Ghosh, national General Secretary (incharge of West Bengal) Kailash Vijayvargiya, and national Vice-President Mukul Roy shared meals with the family of a Baul singer at their house.
(With inputs from agencies)
