BJP will not even win 200 Lok Sabha seats: Mamata

JALPAIGURI: Alleging that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's guarantees are "false", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the BJP will not even win 200 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Speaking at an election rally for party candidate Nirmal Chandra Roy, the Trinamool Congress supremo also accused the BJP of destroying the country's Constitution drafted by B R Ambedkar.

"The BJP will not even win 200 seats. What have they done for north Bengal? Do not fall prey to PM Narendra Modi's guarantees. These are nothing but electoral jumla (false). Modi's guarantee is not to give Bengal its dues," Banerjee said at the TMC's programme.

The BJP-led NDA is aiming at crossing the 400 Lok Sabha seat mark in the upcoming elections.

"Before the (2021) Assembly elections, you (BJP) had said they would win over 200 seats in Bengal, but your run stopped at 70. At the moment out of the 70, ten have already joined us. Now, in this Parliamentary elections, you are claiming to win 400. I tell you to get 200 first," she said.

Banerjee described the BJP leaders as "birds who surface during elections".

"You (BJP) have destroyed the country's Constitution drafted by Babasaheb Ambedkar. You have sold the entire country," she alleged.

The TMC supremo, without naming BJP leader Amit Malviya, lambasted him for calling West Bengal a 'safe haven for terrorists' soon after NIA arresting two persons in the Bengaluru blast case.

Claiming that Bengal is the safest place in India, she said, "Yesterday, some people said that Bengal is not safe anymore. They must have forgotten that Bengaluru and Bengal are separate states. The arrested persons are from Karnataka. They were only for two hours at Contai in Purba Medinipur district when our police arrested them.”

The chief minister attacked the BJP-led Centre not allegedly clearing dues related to the ‘PM Awas Yojana' and '100 days' scheme' to West Bengal.

"They have taken over Rs 6.80 lakh crore as revenue and the due amount is Rs 1.74 lakh crore. How will I run the government? Before calling us thieves, I challenge you to bring out the statistics of Gujarat, Maharashtra and UP on the Awas Yojana and the 100-day scheme. They (BJP) are the biggest thieves, dacoits, and mafias in the country," she said.

Claiming that the Congress-Left Front has joined hands with the BJP in Bengal, Banerjee said that in the coming days, her party would help in forming the government at the Centre.

"We will run the country in the coming days... But in Bengal, we will not support the CPI(M) and the Congress as they have joined hands with the BJP," Banerjee claimed in her speech.

The BJP has fielded sitting MP Jayanta Kumar Roy while the Left has nominated CPI(M) leader Debraj Barman for the Jalpaiguri Lok Sabha constituency which will go to polls on April 19.