Home Minister Amit Shah asserted on Wednesday that no one can stop the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and said the people will elect Narendra Modi as the prime minister in 2024 to set the foundation for the BJP to form the government in West Bengal in the 2026 assembly polls.

Addressing a big rally here to launch the BJP's Lok Sabha campaign, Shah launched a blistering attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issues of appeasement, infiltration, corruption and political violence, alleging she has "destroyed" the state.

Banerjee has been opposing the CAA due to her support to infiltration, he asserted, adding that a state with so much infiltration cannot develop. He urged people to throw out her government by electing the BJP in the next assembly polls in 2026 and asked them to lay its foundation by supporting the party in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

He said, "Give so many seats to the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls that Modiji says I have become PM due to Bengal." The Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress won the last assembly polls by "rigging" but the BJP jumped to 77 seats from zero, he said, calling upon people to end the TMC's alleged misrule of corruption, infiltration, and political violence by electing a government conducive to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda of development.

The syndicate run by the Trinamool Congress, Shah alleged, is not letting huge sums of money sent by the Modi government to reach the state's poor.

He cited figures to assert that the Centre's funding for the state through various schemes has risen many times under the BJP than the Congress-led UPA, of which Banerjee was also a member. Lauding the turnout at the rally, he said this indicates the people's mood and claimed that the BJP will come to power with two-third majority in the state in 2026.

The BJP's performance in the state in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls will create the foundation of its win in the assembly polls, he said. Turning to the contentious CAA issue, he said Banerjee has been opposing it but it is a law of the country and no one can stop its implementation, which has been in a limbo as the central government is yet to frame its rules amid the opposition's strong stand against the law.

Parliament had passed the law in 2019 They, Shah said in a reference to the intended beneficiaries of the law, have as much a right to citizenship as anyone else. Banerjee once stalled Parliament over the issue of infiltration, but she is now keeping mum, he said, claiming that no one can infiltrate into Assam after the BJP was voted to power in the state.

"Assam has done a commendable job in stopping infiltration. But in West Bengal, infiltration persists due to the TMC government's vote-bank politics. Mamata Banerjee is opposing CAA but let me say it clearly that CAA will be implemented in the country. No one can stop the implementation of CAA," Shah declared.

Hitting out at Banerjee over the suspension of the Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari, he said she may try to silence him but cannot silence people of the state. Her time as the state's chief minister is over, he said, often referring to her as 'didi'.

Shah also dared Banerjee to suspend from her party some of its leaders arrested in corruption cases and said she cannot do it as she apprehended that they may implicate her nephew, a reference to MP Abhishek Banerjee. "The people of Bengal are fed up with the cut money and syndicates of TMC," he said. The home minister said as many as 212 BJP workers have been killed in West Bengal in political violence and added that people will avenge these murders with their votes in the 2026 assembly polls.

Banerjee has destroyed West Bengal, Shah alleged, citing political violence, corruption, appeasement in state. The state's development is Modi's top priority but it can only happen when there is a government conducive to the prime minister's agenda, he said. He urged people to ensure a big win for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.

"We must ensure that the BJP forms the next government in West Bengal. To achieve this, we must win the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats from the state in the next Parliamentary elections," Shah emphasised, echoing sentiments expressed during an April rally when he set a target of winning over 35 seats in the state.

The union minister was addressing the rally at the historic Esplanade, with an eye on setting the tone for the party's Lok Sabha campaign in the state. It was from the same venue in 2014 that Shah, as the-then BJP president, had launched the party's 2016 assembly poll campaign in the state.

This time, the state police had denied his rally permission, but the BJP moved the Calcutta High Court, which dismissed the administration's contention and allowed the public meeting. The party had won 18, its highest ever, of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019.

At the rally Shah was joined by the state party leadership and Union ministers from the state.

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(Edited by : Sangam Singh)

First Published:Nov 29, 2023 8:25 PM IST