Mamata Banerjee (file photo) | Photo credit: PTI
Key points
- The BJP has become a political rival to the TMC in the recent past
- In the 2019 general elections, the BJP won 18 of the 42 seats from which it has contested in West Bengal.
Calcutta: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal took a new turn on Wednesday, when CM Mamata Banerjee urged people to ‘resist outsiders’, in an indirect attack targeting the BJP. The BJP responded by saying that the TMC detained Indians from other states, but “greeted” Bangladeshis with “open arms.”
“Indians from other parts of the country are not welcomed by the TMC government, but Bangladeshi intruders are welcomed with open arms,” the BJP said in response to Banerjee’s reference to ‘outsiders’.
On Wednesday, Banerjee had said: “If some thugs from outside come to our state and terrorize them, all must unite and resist them. I promise that we will support them. We believe in peace. But few people come to the state only during elections to terrorize. others. We will not allow them to run free here. “
The comments reflect Mamata Banerjee’s anger and frustration: Vijayvargiya
Criticizing Banerjee for his comments, the BJP’s national secretary general and the party’s Bengal head Kailash Vijayvargiya said the West Bengal CM’s comments reflected “anger and frustration” from the TMC chief. With months to go until West Bengal faces the vote, the calls of ‘Bengali pride’ and ‘natives against outsiders’ are gaining momentum in the eastern state. In the 2019 general elections, the BJP won 18 of Lok Sabha’s 42 seats in West Bengal, underscoring its emergence as a strong political rival to the TMC in the state.
In the recent past, the BJP leadership has exuded confidence that it will end the 10-year rule of Mamata Banerjee in the state in the 2021 Assembly elections. The political rivalry between the two parties has also witnessed death. of party workers, each blaming the other party for the “murders.”
