Mamata Banerjee prepones two rallies after Election Commission diktat

Unfazed by the Election Commission’s order to end electoral campaign for the last phase of polls in West Bengal 20 hours before the original scheduled time, Mamata Banerjee advanced her rallies that were planned for Friday to Thursday.

The EC took an unprecedented step of invoking Article 324 to curtail the campaign period in West Bengal in view of the violence. But it came under attack from the Opposition as the time duration meant advantage to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was scheduled to address two rallies on Thursday.   

Banerjee addressed two rallies and held two road-shows in the punishing sultry heat of West Bengal in Mathurapur, Diamond Harbour, Behala and Kolkata. She addressed her first rally in Mathurapur, barely a few kilometres away from PM Modi’s rally. 

Without mincing any words, Banerjee called the PM “shameless” and BJP president Amit Shah as a “goonda”.  She accused the BJP of breaking statues across the country and said, “From Lenin in Tripura to Ambedkar in Gujarat and Vidyasagar in Kolkata, BJP has damaged these statues.”

Responding to Modi’s allegation that TMC goons had vandalised Vidyasagar’s bust and he would install a bigger statue of panchdhatu, Mamata said, “Bengal has money to make the statue. Can he (PM) give back the 200-year-old heritage? We have proof and you say that TMC has done it. Aren’t you ashamed? He should do sit ups for lying so much. Liar, Prove allegations otherwise we’ll drag you to jail.”