INDIA bloc to win Lok Sabha elections 2024, BJP will not even cross 200 seats, says Mamata Banerjee

Mamata Banerjee. Pic/PTI

West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the INDIA bloc will come to power in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 and BJP will "not cross the 200 mark" in the polls, reported news agency PTI.

She accused Congress and CPI(M) of having entered into a nexus with BJP in the state to discredit the state government and asked the electorate not to vote for any non-TMC parties which will benefit the saffron camp. Addressing an election rally at Goghat under the Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency, Banerjee claimed: "Some monks are working under the influence of BJP leaders in Delhi. Those who are looking after temples are doing great spiritual jobs, but everyone is not doing so. This is not done. We respect the monks."

One monk of a particular monastic order had forbidden the TMC agent to sit in a polling booth in the state, she alleged. The chief minister also said that one such monk, whom she earlier held in high esteem, has lost her respect for speaking against the TMC in Baharampur, reported PTI.

Banerjee claimed that some monks of a monastic order in Asansol had asked their devotees to vote for one particular party.

"If you (the monastic order) don't vote yourself as part of your principle, why should you ask others to vote for BJP or any other party?" she said. The chief minister said she had helped Rama Krishna Mission renovate the ancestral house of Swami Vivekananda in Kolkata and ISKCON get land. "Monks give diksha to the spiritual-minded people; they are our inspirations and hence conduct of some of them makes me sad," Banerjee said, reported PTI.

Responding to that, state BJP said in an X post: "In Arambagh today, Mamata Banerjee stooped to a new low... She accused these revered organizations, which risk their lives to help people during floods, of threatening the country's future."

At the Lok Sabha elections 2024 rally, Banerjee said that INDIA bloc members at the national level are all working together to resist the "autocratic, demonic Narendra Modi government. TMC will play its role in installing the INDIA bloc to power," reported PTI.

"See what Modi is telling now " he is no more making tall '400 paar' seats by BJP. He can read the writing on the wall already. BJP will not cross even 200 tally. BJP will bite the dust," she said.

Banerjee alleged that CPI(M), Congress and other Left partners in West Bengal have entered into a 'mahaghot' (unprincipled nexus) with BJP just to discredit the ruling TMC which is the only party against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the state. The TMC supremo also slammed CPI(M) for allegedly committing mass murders at places like Goghat and Sihar during its rule and claimed only she as then opposition leader had dared to face the "Marxist terror at that time braving her life." "I know the true face of CPI(M) in Bengal," she added, reported PTI.

Describing Modi and Shah as "anti-Bengal", she said, "His issuing advertisements in media to profess his love for the state won't cut much ice with the residents of the state who knows these BJP heavyweight leaders will never understand our ethos and sentiments." Banerjee accused Modi and Shah of using doctored, false image of Matuas in one such ad gloating over CAA benefits, reported PTI.

Reiterating her allegations about BJP concocting the charges of atrocities against TMC leaders on women of Sandeshkhali, she said, "They made some of the poor, unsuspecting women sign on blank papers and incorporated charges of sexual misconduct in the complaint later." She cautioned the voters and the security personnel by alleging that BJP had planned to remove idols from temples in Sandeshkhali and elsewhere and engineer riots to get votes by dividing people. In a conciliatory tone, she added: "If there had been stray incidents of mistake, those have been rectified and corrective actions taken on our part. Today's generation might not be aware of the magnitude of atrocities committed on people and political opponents by the CPIM in its reign which had never been addressed by their administration," reported PTI.

The goons of the CPI(M) have changed colours and now working for the BJP, the TMC supremo claimed. At the second rally in Bishnupur Lok Sabha seat, Banerjee mentioned Modi's comments on alleged consumption of fish by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav during Navratri. She said, "Who are you (Modi) to lecture us whether to eat meat, fish or egg? Let everyone eat what he/she likes."

Banerjee said every state has its own culinary and dietary tradition and the PM and his party have no right to impose diktat on the people of a region in a country like India. Claiming that Union Home Minister Amit Shah has been asking people to invest in shares to boost the stock market, she accused the BJP heavyweight of violating the model code of conduct (MCC). Terming Modi as a "jumla PM" who only spreads misinformation and gives false promises, she said he had promised two crore jobs in every year in the last polls. "So the total number would go up to 10 crore. How many actually get jobs promised by Modi? Why is he not repeating the same promise this time?... I have not seen such a jumla government in my entire political life," Banerjee said, reported PTI.

Banerjee charged Modi with trying to change the pluralistic values and secular ideals enshrined in the constitution and change the name of India to Bharat. "This has become more pronounced since we named the opposition bloc INDIA," she said.

(With inputs from PTI)