New Delhi: On a day when many opposition parties came together on a common platform in Kolkata, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at their proposed ‘mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance, saying it is a combine of those whom he had prevented from “looting” India and it is not against him but people of the country.
He took a dig at the opposition rally organised on Saturday by the Trinamul Congress (TMC) in Kolkata as well as as at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, without taking her name, saying the BJP has only one MLA in the state, “but still they are so afraid of us that they are saying ‘bachao’ (save us)”.
“The ‘mahagathbandhan’ or grand alliance is not against Narendra Modi but people of India,” Modi said.
“My actions against corruption made some people angry as I prevented them from looting public money. They have formed the ‘mahagathbandhan’,” Modi said, adding that these leaders have come together out of fear.
Against the backdrop of the West Bengal government denying permission to BJP to organise yatras in West Bengal, the PM said political parties in the TMC-ruled state are not even allowed to carry out their programmes.
“Party workers are killed there during elections and they talk about saving democracy. When those involved in suffocating democracy talk of saving it, then people will say ‘wah kya baat hai...’,” he said mocking the parties opposing the BJP.
Meanwhile, other BJP leaders played the nationalist card to undermine the rise of a major threat to its return to power.
Using the hashtag #UnitedAntinationalsBrigade to deride the Opposition’s rally which was using the hashtag #UnitedIndiaAtBrigade, the BJP dubbed the rally as “a rally of self interest and of conflicting ideologies”.
Alleging that as Mr Modi's is fighting against the corrupt and corruption, “therefore, corrupt leaders are against him,” the BJP asserted that the Brigade Ground’s rally’s “only motive was to defeat Mr Modi” in the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Wondering who was the leader of the opposition's alliance, BJP’s national spokesperson Rajiv Prat-ap Rudy termed the rally an “anti-Modi exercise” and said the party was not threatened by such events. Former TMC heavyweight and now a BJP leader Mukul Roy labelled the event as a “circus” and tweeted: “Various jokers and lying artists coming together to destroy India again. #UnitedAntiNat-ionalsAtBrigade.”
