EC chalked out 7-phase polls to assist BJP campaigning: Mamata

WEST BENGAL Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday alleged that the Election Commission of India chalked out seven-phase polls to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues to carry out extensive campaigning using the nation’s resources.

Addressing a public meeting at Gazole in Malda district in support of Maldaha Uttar TMC candidate Prasun Banerjee, a former IPS officer, Mamata said polls have been scheduled from April 19 to June 1 so that Modi and his cabinet colleagues can travel on special planes across the country before every phase to “overwhelm the Opposition”.

“On earlier occasions, elections used to be over by May but this year, it has been extended till June 1 to enable Modi to visit various places on military planes, while we are made to arrange for our own transport, including helicopters, which are also being booked by BJP leaders so that we get little space,” she alleged. “People are greatly inconvenienced by the scorching heat but Modi is unperturbed as they (BJP leaders) are campaigning in VVIP comfort with all facilities at hand,” she added.

Banerjee alleged that though the Union council of ministers led by Narendra Modi is a caretaker cabinet after the announcement of elections and the EC is in charge of running the administrative machinery, the poll body is “toeing the line dictated by Modi and his party colleagues”.

Attacking the BJP and Congress MPS from West Bengal, Banerjee alleged that despite being elected from the state in 2019, none of them took up the state's cause regarding the release of MGNREGA funds.

“On the other hand, our (TMC) MPS were manhandled and arrested when they went to Delhi in November last year to demand the release of MGNREGA funds,” she said. “But what have the Congress and BJP MPS done for the poor?" she questioned. “Bengal will not beg. I am your Royal Bengal Tiger. The more MPS we will get, the more work will be done,” she added.

Banerjee accused the CPI (M) and Congress of bolstering the BJP and urged people not to cast votes for any non-tmc candidate. “I had coined the name of INDIA bloc. But the INDIA bloc does not exist in Bengal. For us, it exists outside the state,” she said.

“Our MP Mahua Moitra was expelled from Parliament for unmasking the misdeeds of the Modi government and its proximity to big business houses.”

Express West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting for LS elections, at Gajol in Malda on Saturday.