"I have not seen such a jumla govt in my entire political life": Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday, 18 May, claimed that the INDIA bloc will come to power in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and BJP will "not cross the 200 mark" in the polls.

Addressing an election rally at Goghat under the Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency, Banerjee said, "I had coined the name INDIA and at the national level we the coalition partners are all working together to resist the autocratic, demonic Narendra Modi government. TMC will play its role in installing the INDIA bloc to power."

"See what Modi is telling now. He is no more making tall '400 paar' seats claims," she said, adding:

Describing Modi and Shah as "anti-Bengal", she said: "His issuing advertisements in media to profess his love for the state won't cut much ice with the residents of the state, who know these BJP heavyweight leaders will never understand our ethos and sentiments."

Banerjee accused Modi and Shah of using doctored, false images of Matuas in one such ad gloating over the benefits of the CAA.

Reiterating her allegations about the BJP concocting charges against TMC leaders of atrocities visited upon women of Sandeshkhali, she said, "They made some of the poor, unsuspecting women sign on blank papers and incorporated charges of sexual misconduct in the complaint later."

She cautioned the voters and the security personnel, alleging that the BJP had planned to remove idols from temples in Sandeshkhali and elsewhere and to engineer riots to get votes by dividing people.

At the second rally in Bishnupur Lok Sabha seat, Banerjee mentioned Modi’s comments on the alleged consumption of fish during Navratri by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav:

Banerjee said every state has its own culinary and dietary tradition, and the PM and his party have no right to impose diktat on the people of a region in a country like India.

Claiming that union home minister Amit Shah has been asking people to invest in shares to boost the stock market, she accused the BJP heavyweight of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

Terming Modi a “jumla PM” who only spreads misinformation and makes false promises, she spoke of the prime minister promising 2 crore jobs every year in the last polls: “So the total number would go up to 10 crore."

Banerjee also accused the prime minister of plotting to divide the nation along religious lines and of plundering the assets of the country.

Banerjee charged Modi with trying to change the pluralistic values and secular ideals enshrined in the Constitution and trying to change the name of India to Bharat.

"This has become more pronounced since we named the opposition bloc INDIA," she said.

Banerjee also promised that once the INDIA bloc comes to power, measures will be initiated to scrap CAA and NRC and Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Accusing BJP of using central agencies to frame TMC leaders in coal and cattle smuggling cases, she said, “Who is in charge of border security? Why will union home minister Amit Shah not be arrested if there are such cases of smuggling?”

Banerjee alleged that BJP is trying to influence monks but that plan will not succeed.

Stating that her government had helped Ramakrishna Mission to renovate the ancestral home of Swami Vivekananda in north Kolkata, she said, “I have regular contacts with monastic organisations and that will remain forever. I have great respect for them.”

In a dig at the sitting BJP MP from Bishnupur and current candidate Saumitra Khan, Banerjee accused him of amassing huge properties during his five-year tenure but not doing anything to secure the money under 100 days’ central project for the job card holders in three years.

Modi, like an emperor, comes to campaign in a luxury aircraft and leaves while she uses a small hired helicopter, she claimed.