While addressing his first Lok Sabha election rally in West Bengal at Baharampur in Murshidabad district, Nadda said, “We talk about forming a majboot sarkar (strong government) but Mamata Banerjee wants a majboor sarkar (helpless government). She wants a government that believes in appeasement, corruption, and discrimination and has a soft corner for terrorists”.
“We are opposed to her politics of appeasement which opposes the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) and favours infiltrators. Her government has sympathy for those who terrorise people,” he added.
The BJP leader also talked about the allegations of sexual harassment and land theft against Trinamool Congress leaders in Sandeshkhali, saying what happened in the village in the state’s North 24 Parganas district was “heart-wrenching where TMC goons played with the dignity of our sisters”.
“The way women were tortured in Sandeshkhali and the way Mamata Banerjee tried to protect Sheikh Shajahan is very unfortunate. What can be more shameful than harassment of women in a state ruled by a woman chief minister? Mamata Banerjee had given the slogan ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’ but neither mothers nor sisters are safe in Bengal,” Nadda said at the rally.
The BJP national president also hit out at the Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation over the teachers recruitment ‘scam’, in which the Calcutta High Court ordered the cancellation of appointments of 25,753 teachers and non-teaching staff made through the recruitment process of State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in government-sponsored and aided schools in Bengal.
Nadda said, “Corruption and loot have become the order of the day under the TMC rule. This Bengal government has done nothing but scams. The recent teachers’ recruitment scam caused the loss of jobs and livelihood for thousands of people. This is an indication that corruption and loot have become a routine in the state”.
In the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat, which is traditionally a bastion of the Congress party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Dr Nirmal Kumar Saha and former Indian cricketer and political greenhorn Yusuf Pathan of the Trinamool Congress will be up against Congress leader and sitting MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Chowdhury has been representing the constituency since 1999.
The Lok Sabha elections 2024 will be held in Baharampur on May 13 in the fourth phase, and votes will be counted on June 4.