Ahead of PM’s rally, BJP and TMC wage poster war
MIDNAPORE/KOLKATA: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in West Bengal’s West Mindapore district on Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress traded barbs through a series of posters.
A day before Modi is scheduled to address a farmers’ rally in Midanpore, the TMC’s has covered the district with party’s posters and cutouts of party president and chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Both sides of the road leading to the Midnapore College ground, the venue of PM’s rally, have been covered with the life size pictures of Banerjee standing with folded hands.
Not to be left behind, the BJP has put up its posters alongside TMC’s, stating that it was committed to farmers’ upliftment. The party also provided its own spin to the CM’s cutouts that show her with folded hands.
“This is an indirect admission by Mamata Banerjee that she is welcoming the Prime Minister,” BJP’s national secretary Rahul Sinha said.
The BJP has also decorated the Midnapore College ground in line with the rally’s theme. “Replicas of farmers sowing field with plough have been installed at several places at meeting venue of Midnapore College ground,” Sinha added.
TMC’s Rajya Sabha member Manas Bhuinya ridiculed Modi’s upcoming rally. “How can Modi address the farmers’ issue after ignoring the CM’s demand for farm loan waivers? While in BJPruled states there had been series of farmer suicides, in Bengal there had not been any such incident,” he said.
The TMC is also planning to organise a rally at the same venue with party legislator Dinen Roy putting August 9 as the tentative date on which it could be held. On July 1, the TMC had organised a rally in Purulia district after Amit Shah’s meeting there on June 28.
“Nothing had been finalised yet. But in the previous years we have seen that our leaders have attended rallies which were organised on August 9 in the district,” Roy said.