Salboni (WB), April 21: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was shielding “infiltrators”, promoting dynastic politics and backing attempts to raise a “Babri Masjid-modelled mosque” in West Bengal, which the BJP would not allow.
Addressing a rally at Salboni in Paschim Medinipur ahead of the first phase of the Bengal polls, Shah sought to turn the contest into a direct ideological battle between the BJP and the ruling TMC.
He declared that the election was not merely about choosing a government but about “freeing Bengal from infiltrators, corruption and fear”. “Mamata Didi wants to protect infiltrators. But I am telling you, press the button on EVM beside the lotus (BJP’s poll symbol) on April 23 and a BJP government will drive out every infiltrator from Bengal,” he said.
Shah also intensified his attack on what the BJP terms “bhaipo culture” in Bengal politics, targeting Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, without naming him. “Mamata ji wants to make her nephew the chief minister of Bengal. She is misleading people by claiming that if the BJP wins, an outsider will become chief minister. I assure you that the next chief minister of Bengal will be from the BJP, born and brought up in Bengal, and he will speak Bengali,” Shah said, adding, “Certainly, he will not be bhaipo. He will be a BJP worker.”
In one of his sharpest attacks on the TMC during the ongoing campaign, Shah invoked the Ram temple-Babri Masjid dispute and referred to suspended TMC MLA and AJUP founder Humayun Kabir, who proposed building a Babri-like mosque in the Beldanga area of Murshidabad district. “Modi ji built the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. For 550 years, these people did not allow the Ram Temple to be built. At the place where the Babri Masjid stood, a Ram Temple has now been built,” Shah said as the crowd raised the chant of ‘Jai Shri Ram’.
He alleged that Mamata Banerjee, through Humayun Kabir, wanted to build a “Babri Masjid” in Bengal.
“Mamata Didi wants her associate Humayun Kabir to build a Babri Masjid in Bengal. Didi, listen carefully. Bengal is in India. We will never allow a Babri Masjid to be built in Bengal,” he said.
Shah also promised that the BJP, if voted to power in Bengal, would implement a UCC in the state.
Seeking to make women’s safety another key poll issue, Shah cited incidents such as Sandeshkhali, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Durgapur Medical College and the alleged rape at a south Kolkata law college to accuse the TMC government of failing to protect women. (PTI)
