Raising his pitch against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said that she must be defeated in Nandigram to bring real change in the state.
Shah, who campaigned intensively in Nandigram in support of BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari, claimed that he will defeat the Trinamool Congress supremo with a big margin.
“You can bring real change in Nandigram by defeating Mamata Didi from here. If you ensure her defeat from here, then the TMC will definitely lose in other parts of Bengal,” said Shah. He was speaking to reporters at a BJP office in Nandigram.
Seeking to target the Chief Minister over woman’s safety in Bengal, Shah said that a woman was recently raped in Nandigram barely a few kilometers away from where Mamata is staying in the constituency.
“Mamata Didi makes tall claims about women's safety in Bengal. But what is the real situation here? A woman was recently raped barely five kilometers away from where Mamata didi is staying in Nandigram. I want to ask Mamata Didi that you make tall claims about women's safety., then how did such an incident take place in Nandigram when you are present here?” asked Shah.
As for the BJP’s prospects in Nandigram, Shah said that he was confident that Adhikari will comfortably win the seat.
“I am confident that Suvendu will definitely win from Nandigram. But I appeal to the people to give him such a large margin of victory that no other politician will dare to fool the people with false promises,” said Shah.
He also said that the people of Bengal are sick of infiltration and the BJP was committed to stopping it, adding that the people of the state wanted the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Earlier in the day, Shah held a well-attended roadshow Nandigram where large crowds gathered on both sides of the route of the four-kilometer-long roadshow with BJP workers raising slogans of ‘Jai Shree Ram’. Nandigram will go to the polls on April 1 in the second phase.