Siliguri: As Narendra Modi held fort for over an hour at Kolkata’s famous Brigade Parade ground on a hot Sunday afternoon, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took to the dais at Siliguri to respond to the Prime Minister’s charges.
“They (BJP) are talking of tolabaji (extortion)… How much will they get by selling public sector banks, Air India? They are talking of syndicate raj in West Bengal… There is only one syndicate in india — Modi-Shah syndicate,” Mamata countered, after leading a ‘padayatra’ to protest against the hike in LPG cylinders.
Hitting out fiercely at the BJP, Mamata said: “BJP doesn’t come here for work or development, they only come for their own promotion. But before promotion, they should answer why the price of LPG petrol and diesel are rising.”
Mocking Modi’s ‘asol paribartan’ (real change) call, Mamata said there will be ‘paribartan’ in Delhi, not West Bengal.
Mamata also took a dig at BJP’s promise of setting up ‘Sonar Bangla’.
“They say they’ll make West Bengal Sonar Bangla, they’re not even capable of doing any development work in Centre… what will they do in Bengal?”
As a mark of protest, the CM carried cardboard replica of LPG cylinder as she walked from Darjeeling More, crossed Mahananda Bridge to reach the heart of Siliguri.
“I’ve never seen a PM who lies everywhere. He doesn’t know anything but to lie. PM reads his speeches from teleprompter in Bengal. He writes the Bengali slogans in Gujarati,” she added.
“People will not tolerate BJP’s lies. If they bribe you for votes, you know what to do. Bengal doesn’t want their ‘tolabaji’ and ‘jumla’,” she said.
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