Bengal Polls: Mamata Accuses Shah of Character Assassination
“He claimed I roam around, wearing bandages. Hey worthless, I returned many times from the jaws of death fighting. Go to hospitals and collect the medical reports”: Amit Shah
KOLKATA: A day after union home minister Amit Shah accused West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of playing “victim card politics” before elections to gain sympathy to get votes, the Trinamul Congress supremo came down heavily on him for her “character assassination” in a fierce retaliation.
Ms Banerjee, who campaigned for her party candidate Sandhya Rani Tudu at Manbazar in Purulia on Sunday, not only blamed Mr Shah for leaving her injured in leg ahead of the Assembly polls in 2021 but also wondered whether he made any “plan” to kill her this time.
Referring to the union home minister’s comments, the TMC chief alleged, “He claimed I roam around, wearing bandages. Hey worthless, I returned many times from the jaws of death fighting. Go to hospitals and collect the medical reports.”
She claimed, “Don't you have any shame? Don't you know the tortures on me? You had intentionally left me with leg injuries in the last election. But I campaigned in a wheelchair with plasters on my leg because of my mental strength to reach out to the people. Are you planning to kill me now?”
The CM pointed out, “What is the purpose of making such remarks? Someone hatches a plot before character assassination. Hey rioter, are you plotting something? When someone makes mistakes, he leaves some errors. His comments prove that he is making a conspiracy.”
She also slammed Mr Shah over the BJP's chargesheet on Saturday against her party's misrule of 15 years. “Who are you to file a chargesheet? You should be chargesheeted,” Ms Banerjee argued before dismissing his complaint of demography change in the state. She then tried to convince the district’s vast tribal vote bank of the BJP's atrocities against their community in other states.
“Remember, it is in the BJP-ruled states where the most violence against Adivasis and women takes place. This is rampant in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. If people from our state go to work there and speak in Bengali, they are beaten. We don’t do that to others who come from other states,” Ms Banerjee mentioned.
She added, “If BJP comes to power, you know very well what will happen. In BJP-ruled states, eating fish, meat and eggs is not allowed. You can’t celebrate your religious festivals freely because they are biased.”