On Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called BJP “more dangerous than the Maoists” and accused the party of making false promises to the people before elections and then doing a vanishing act after winning.

Battle-lines have been drawn ahead of the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, as chief minister Mamata Banerjee led a scorching and strident attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a rally in Purulia on Tuesday.

Referring to TMC turncoat and Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari’s defection to the BJP, Banerjee said, “Those who want to join the BJP can leave, but we will not bow our heads before the saffron party.”

Also read: Evolution of Anti-Defection laws in India-An overview

Taking a dig at Adhikari, who she has directly challenged with her announcement to contest elections from his home-turf Nandigram, the chief minister said, “Politics is a solemn ideology, philosophy; one can change clothes daily but not ideologies.” The BJP is more dangerous than the Maoists, she contended.

Taunting the BJP leaders, Banerjee hit out at the saffron party & said, “The BJP is more visible in the media than on the field. They are using Information Technology to scare and intimidate the Opposition. They have created WhatsApp groups to spread fake news. They came and insulted Birsa Munda, (young freedom fighter and tribal leader).” She went on to deride the BJP for pronouncing ‘Bengal’ as ‘Bangal’.

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The Trinamool Congress chief also said that she was not perturbed by defections in her party, saying “politics is a solemn ideology and philosophy which cannot be changed every day like clothes”. Addressing a rally in Purulia, Banerjee hit out at the BJP, which had won all the Lok Sabha seats in the district, including those in the Jangalmahal area, during the 2019 general elections.

Also see: Trilateral fight in West Bengal election 2021

Adding that the tribals were misled by the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections, Banerjee said, “You all voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, but does your MP visit you? Have they given you anything? They will make false promises before the elections and once it is over, they will flee.”

Banerjee said that the Maoists have come back to the mainstream in the state and that her government has given them jobs as special home guards. The TMC has inducted Chhatradhar Mahato, a former leader of Maoist-backed People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA), who had hogged the limelight during the Lalgarh movement in the tribal-dominated Junglemahal area at the fag-end of the erstwhile Left Front rule in the state.

Also see: Battleground of Bengal election 2021

Mahato was set free in February last year by the state government following a reduction in his life term to 10 years by Calcutta High Court for his good conduct.

Alleging that BJP leaders have insulted Birsa Munda, the Trinamool chief mocked the party for not being able to correctly pronounce “Bangla”. “They say Bangal, but they are kangal (destitute) for votes,” she added. Comparing BJP with a snake, the TMC chief said that the party annihilates anyone that comes into its grip.

With Trinamool MLAs and leaders joining the BJP ahead of the polls, Banerjee call the desertions “good riddance”. She said that those who have left the party would have disturbed the organization had they remained in the TMC. “There are three types of people in politics – lobhi (greedy), bhogi (those who enjoy power) and tyagi (abstainers from indulgence),” she said.

Dismissing projections in pre-poll surveys, she claimed that “lies” are being dished out at the behest of the BJP.

“The Trinamool will get four times the number of seats that they are projecting,” she said, alleging that BJP propaganda machinery was circulating fake videos in social media.

Accusing the BJP, Congress and CPI(M) of being “brothers in arms”, she alleged that the Left party has handed over its votes to the saffron party.

Left Front and the Congress have decided to fight Bengal polls together in an alliance.

She said that farmers are agitating over their demands for repealing the farm laws for more than a month, while the peasants are happy in the TMC-ruled Bengal. Asserting that Purulia has never bowed to the outsiders, Banerjee said that the TMC government has done everything for the development of the adivasis, including the formation of West Bengal Santhal Academy, apart from giving recognition to their language ‘Ol Chiki’.

She said that class XII students in the state will get Rs 10,000 each in their bank account “within a day or two” for buying tablets or smartphones for their studies in the virtual mode.

Admitting that Purulia suffers from water supply problems, the Chief Minister said that projects worth thousands of crores of Rupees have been taken up by her government for supplying drinking water to every household.

Banerjee further said that thousands of jobs will be created with the Dankuni-Amritsar freight corridor route passing through Raghunathpur in Purulia and an industrial park coming up in Joypur in the district.

(With inputs from PTI)