“A Lok Sabha seat consists of seven Assembly constituencies. As the Election Commission of India is under them (BJP), they will show the seats in which the BJP is ahead and not the ones in which we get a greater margin of votes. I am not talking about us but this will happen in other places,” she said. “There is a possibility that if the counting is conducted properly, the BJP will not come to power this time,” she added.
During the roadshow, Banerjee walked from Jadavpur to Hazra through the almost-10km stretch covering south Kolkata’s Bhowanipore, Hazra, Lansdown, Chakraberia, Gariahat, Dhakuria and Jadavpur.
Reiterating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meditation is meant to “gain publicity”, she said, “The chair of the PM is valuable and it has constitutional rules. They don’t care about them. Every time before elections, he sits somewhere to gain publicity for 48 hours. He may meditate but why in the presence of cameras? He will show the footage of five minutes… They will keep showing the five-minute footage.”
“Inflation has touched the sky in the country. They lie about giving free ration to the people and don’t release any funds. We provide ration, water and electricity as well. They lie about providing free cooking gas. It is similar to their fake promises of giving Rs 15 lakh to people. I have never seen any other PM telling such lies.”
On Cyclone Remal, she said, “We have set up relief centres for 46 lakh people. But the damaged houses need to be restored for them. Yesterday I saw how their crops were damaged due to excess water. We have always helped them and will continue to do so.”
She further said, “Services should be provided always with a smile. About 99 per cent of refugee colonies have been recognised and the rest of them will also be done. We have given respect to the slums as well. The slums are now addressed as ‘uttaran’. If the sons and daughters of those areas could be highly educated, why would the areas be still called slums? This is why the name ‘uttaran’ has been given. The colonies are now called ‘sthayi thikana’. ‘Colony’ sounds like people from Bangladesh do not have a permanent addresses. Hence the new name.”