KOLKATA: Eyeing the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a mega Bharatiya Janata Party rally in Kolkata on Wednesday, saying that the Centre would implement the Citizenship Amendment Act in West Bengal if brought to power.
“Mamata has not been able to stop infiltration. Voter cards and Aadhaar cards are being openly and illegally distributed to infiltrators and she is sitting silent!” Shah states.
Shah’s public meeting at Dharmatala where the Trinamool Congress regularly holds its public meeting, saw a huge gathering, serving as a testing ground for the saffron party’s and the Centre’s situation in West Bengal.
“Bengal is gripped by infiltration, appeasement, political violence and corruption” said Shahat the public rally, “You should remember that in order to bring the BJP government to power here in 2026, you’ll have to lay its very foundation during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Ensure that you make (Narendra) Modi the Prime Minister of the country again,” said the Home Minister.
FLASH: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee sent a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the government’s advisory comments on the proposed #IndianPenalCode amendments
Reports @joymalabagchi pic.twitter.com/q4LJ8p6uQn
— The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) November 29, 2023
The BJP had won 18 of the 42 parliamentary constituencies in West Bengal during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. However, before 2021 WB Assembly Elections, they faced a speedbump in the form of multiple BJP leaders leaving the party for the TMC, such as Babul Supriyo, Arjun Singh and six other MLAs.
Shah’s attacks against the ruling party could not be stifled as he said, “The syndicate Raj in Bengal does not allow funds to reach the poor.”
Earlier BJP sources had told The New Indian, ” He (Amit Shah) will address the deprived people of West Bengal. The state govt had promised many things be it during assembly polls or panchayat elections but they have received nothing from them.”
Reacting to Shah’s visit, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien said, “rajya Sabha MP Derek O Brien states, “In the winter months a lot of migratory birds come to Bengal. In the same way, another migratory species came to Bengal today and will fly out in a few hours. Not a word from the Home Minister and Modi’s No.2 about how they will bring more jobs for the youth, not a word about price rise and not a word about MANREGA where workers finished work in Bengal still have not been paid by the Centre.”
On the other hand Trinamool Youth Congress and Trinamool Chhatra Parishad members wrote 51,000 letters to Home Minister Amit Shah. The letter was in reference to “BJP-led Centre’s vindictive decision to withhold Bengal’s rightful due and seeking accountability for the increasing unemployment in the country.”
WB Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also sent a letter to Shah, urging him to not rush through the criminal bills in the winter session of the Parliament.