Amit Shah says Mamata risking national security for vote bank politics, predicts 35 Lok Sabha seat win for BJP

Kolkata: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of risking national security by protecting infiltrators for vote bank politics and asserted the BJP will win more than 35 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2024 polls.

Addressing a meeting of the state BJP's social media and IT wing members, Shah launched a sharp attack on the TMC government, alleging that 'cut money' collected from the state is used to buy palatial mansions in foreign countries but the same people move around here in slippers, party sources said.

People will no longer be hoodwinked by these optics and seek accountability for the Trinamool Congress government's work, he said.

In a swipe at Mahua Moitra without naming her, Shah alleged she shared her Parliament portal password with businessmen in exchange for gifts but the chief minister defended her.

How many questions were about the poor in Bengal, he asked, adding that TMC MPs do not do so because they will not receive expensive gifts for this.

Moitra was disqualified as a Lok Sabha after the House's Ethics Committee indicted her on the charges.

The sources said Shah also flayed TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee for mimicking Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, saying such a conduct does not behove a lawmaker.

'Didi (CM Mamata Banerjee) has put national security at stake for her vote bank politics by protecting infiltrators so that they would vote for her,' a BJP leader present in the meeting said, quoting Shah.

Noting that Bengal used to lead the nation in every aspect, Shah claimed that it is now known for its cut money, syndicate, infiltration, dyanstic politics and bomb blasts.

Stacks of currency notes worth Rs 50 crore have been recovered from TMC leaders, including a minister, but Banerjee calls him soldiers of her party, he said, according to the sources.

Expressing confidence that the BJP will win over 35 seats, he exhorted party workers to ensure its victory and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make the land of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, a founding ideologue of the party, 'Sonar Bangla'.

Noting that the BJP's tally rose to 77 from zero in the 2021 assembly polls and that it won 18 Lok Sabha seats in 2019, he said the party can now form a government with a two-thirds majority in the state when elections are held in 2026.

Mamata Banerjee used to take the BJP lightly earlier, he said.

When Banerjee ousted the Communists from power in 2011, people were happy and hopeful that the state will improve but she has provided a worse governance, he claimed.

'Forming a BJP government in West Bengal will mean the end of infiltration, cow smuggling and the (grant of) citizenship to religiously persecuted people through the Citizenship (Amendment) Act,' he said.

The Congress-led UPA government gave Rs 2,09,000 crore to Bengal in 10 years and the Modi government gave Rs 7,17,000 crore in nine years, he said, asserting that the chief minister will have to give account for every rupee.

She is stalling Modi's development works because she is afraid that if they are rolled out in the state, the BJP's popularity will increase, Shah claimed.

The BJP leader said the party will depend on its social media strength to contest the polls in the state, alleging that the regional media does not carry its message under pressure from the state government.

"If you all social media warriors decide, you can have more reach than any channel or newspaper and no one can stop you from making Modi Ji win. That is the reason you have the biggest responsibility," he said, according to a party leader.