POLL DATES COULD COME IN MARCH 1ST WEEK: PM
GUWAHATI/KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday indicated that the election schedule to assemblies of four states and a Union Territory — Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry — could be announced in the first week of March.
“I know you all are waiting for the election. Since the schedule for the last assembly polls in these states was announced in March 4 (in 2016), it seems the Election Commission of India (EC) will announce the poll announcement anytime in the first week of March,” he said at a public meeting in Assam’s Dhemaji.
“My effort will be to visit Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as many times as possible before the schedule is announced by EC,” he added.
In his third visit to the pollbound state within a month, Modi launched several oil and gas projects, inaugurated an engineering college and laid the foundation stone of another.
“Despite immense potential, previous governments gave the North Bank of Brahmaputra (in Assam) a step-motherly treatment. Connectivity, hospitals, educational institutions or industry was not a concern of these earlier governments,” said Modi in a public meeting at
Silapathar.
“Such bias was removed with coming of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] government led by Sarbananda Sonowal. Work on the Bogibeel bridge on Brahmaputra was speeded up and broad-gauge railway lines reached this area after our government came to power. Work on the second bridge at KaliaBhomora over Brahmaputra is going on at fast pace,” he added.
“Our governments at Centre and Assam have done more for development of the state in the past few years than what was done by previous governments for decades,” Modi said, while urging those present to strengthen the “double-engine” (BJP governments at Centre and state) of growth further.
The Prime Minister also visited poll-bound West Bengal later in the day, where he launched a frontal attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government saying it has perpetuated “syndicate raj” where no work gets done without common people having to pay “cut money”.
He accused the TMC government of pursuing “appeasement politics” to protect its vote bank while neglecting its cultural heritage and icons.
“The state government’s cut money culture has vitiated the atmosphere to such an extent that you cannot even take a house on rent without paying it .... you cannot rent a house without the syndicate’s permission,” he said.
He attacked the Banerjee government for not allowing central schemes like the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi and Ayushman Bharat, depriving farmers and the poor of its benefits.
“I have been told the house where Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay conceived and wrote ‘Vande Mataram’ is in an abysmal condition.
The man who injected new life into the freedom struggle amid pervasive gloom of slavery...his house is a victim of neglect. It’s an insult to Bengali pride,” Modi said addressing a public rally here Chuchura in Hooghly district.
He also accused the TMC government of neglecting industrial development, including the state’s once thriving jute industry.
”The people of West Bengal have made up their mind to usher in ‘asol poribartan’ (real change). The BJP will give Bengal a government that will ensure development of all but appeasement of none,” he asserted.
Modi and the BJP have been raking up Bengali culture in an effort to counter chief minister Banerjee branding the BJP leadership as “outsiders” in the state.
Repeatedly attacking the state government, Modi said, “Development of Bengal is not possible as long as the state administration patronises goondas, development of Bengal is not possible as long as the rule of law is not established.”
Modi said once the BJP forms its government in Bengal, people will be able to preserve and protect their culture and nobody will be able to scare or suppress them.
He said there was no dearth of potential investors but the threat of the syndicate and cut money dissuaded them from investing in the state.