'TMC broken, Mamata Banerjee playing politics with the dead'

Asansol/Gangarampur (WB): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday claimed that the TMC has been broken in the first four phases of elections, and asserted that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew would be vanquished by the end of polling in the state.

Speaking at an election rally here, in the sprawling industrial town of Asansol, Modi also claimed the Trinamool Congress supremo has an old habit of doing politics with dead bodies and has been trying to politicise the "unfortunate" death of five people at Sitalkuchi in Cooch Behar district on April 10.

Modi later contended at a rally at Gangarampur in Dakshin Dinajpur, that Banerjee has been abusing him almost every other day as he raises questions on Trinamool Congresss track record of "corruption".

"After four phases, TMC is broken to pieces and `Didi, `bhatija will be vanquished after eight phases of elections (are completed)," Modi said at Asansol. Polling is scheduled in the industrial town in the seventh phase on April 26.

Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek have been spearheading the TMC's campaign in the assembly elections in West Bengal for a third consecutive term for their party.

Holding that illegal coal mining has flourished in places around Asansol in West Bardhaman district, the prime minister said everyone knows where the proceeds of this trade went.

Modi said the West Bengal chief minister's insensitivity was evident once again in connection with the Cooch Behar firing incident, while referring to an audio tape that went viral on Friday.

Voices resembling Mamata Banerjee and TMC Cooch Behar district president Partha Pratim Roy, who is also the party's candidate for Sitalkuchi, are heard on tape discussing deaths of four persons in firing by central forces. Banerjee allegedly asked her district party leader to take out a rally.

"The truth is that Didi thought of her own political gain from the death of people in Cooch Behar she has an old habit of doing politics with dead bodies," he alleged.

Contending that Banerjee has not been attending most of the meetings between the prime minister and state chief ministers on one pretext or another, Modi said that she has also not attended two recent meetings over the emerging Covid situation in the country.

He went on to claim his rival Banerjee has stood as a wall between West Bengal's people and central welfare schemes, depriving them of benefits, including from the PM-Kisan and Ayushman Bharat schemes.

At a rally at Gangarampur, the prime minister rhetorically said Banerjee's day is never complete without abusing him, listing out the "abuses" showered on him by the chief minister.