HOWRAH/AMDANGA: Bengal CM
Mamata Banerjee on Sunday used the Raj Bhavan “scandal” and the Sandeshkhali videos to make a direct pitch to female voters, calling the two episodes “proof of
BJP’s nari birodi (anti-women)” character.
She also alleged that
PM Narendra Modi was “spreading falsehoods” on Sandeshkhali, but refusing to act against governor C V Ananda Bose, who is facing a molestation charge.
Banerjee addressed two
TMC campaigns during the day — one in Howrah’s Amta and the other at Amdanga, North 24 Parganas. “
What about it, Prime Minister? Shouldn’t you have asked him (Bose) to resign and removed him? Aren’t you ashamed (of his deeds)?” she said.
Accusing the PM of peddling lies on Sandeshkhali, the CM said: “A sandesh (message) awaits you (on June 4). Match the results.” On the Raj Bhavan episode, she said: “The governor is the PM’s representative. He is Raj Bhavan’s ‘Latu Saheb’. Women cannot go to Raj Bhavan in fear. I am now facing a constitutional crisis. Even if there is a need, I have to go elsewhere, but cannot enter Raj Bhavan because I am scared at what I have heard of this governor’s misdeeds. That is why, today, no woman is willing to go there.”
The CM, referring to the Sandeshkhali sting videos and tapes and statements by two women that they were made to sign on blank papers, said: “Sandeshkhali niye chokranto korlo (They engineered a conspiracy in Sandeshkhali). This is Modi’s guarantee. The hapless mothers and sisters there (in Sandeshkhali) are not even aware… what they have been made to write in their names. They have hatched a conspiracy by making them write. After this conspiracy, they say, ‘Sara desh dekh raha hai (the entire country is watching)’. But remember what you have done with the mothers and sisters of Sandeshkhali.”
Attacking the PM, Banerjee said: “Modi does nothing but spread lies. I haven’t seen Indira Gandhi as PM, but have seen Rajiv Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, Deve Gowda, I K Gujral and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. But I haven’t seen anyone like Narendra Modi, who only spreads falsehoods. If I have to give him marks for lies, I have to give 120 out of 100.”