'Only BJP can bring real change in Bengal': Modi tears into Mamata govt

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday tore into the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, saying it has "criminalised politics, institutionalised corruption and politicised the police".

"Mamata Didi gets angry if someone chants 'Bharat Mata ki Jai', but never loses cool if disloyal people speak against country. There is conspiracy against yoga, India-made tea and other goods. But Mamata Didi never said anything. I want to assure that India will give answer to all those people who are conspiring against the country," PM Modi said while addressing a rally in Haldia.

"People who talk about 'Ma, Mati and Manush' don't have the courage to raise their voice for 'Bharat Mata'. That's because these people have criminalised politics, institutionalised corruption and politicised the police," he added.

He also said that the people of Bengal expected 'mamata' (affection) from chief minister Mamata Banerjee but got 'nirmamta' (cruelty).

PM Modi said only a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government can free the state of this mismanagement. He exhorted people to vote in a BJP government to experience "asol poriborton (real change)" - like the one being experienced in Tripura.

He said that in West Bengal, the TMC and its friends Left Front and Congress party are together behind the curtains, accusing them of match-fixing. "They meet and greet each other, devise a strategy together. In Kerala too, there's a deal between Left and Congress. In Bengal, the Left and TMC are together; their squabbling is a sham."

PM Modi ended his 45-minute-long address with 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' chant.

The Prime Minister arrived in West Bengal from Assam for a three-and-a-half-hour visit on Sunday; he will inaugurate four projects in oil, gas, and infrastructure sectors in Haldia. He reached Haldia in a helicopter from Kolkata airport.

Banerjee did not attend the Prime Minister's programme. She had on January 23 refused to deliver her speech at an event on the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's 125th birth anniversary, after a section of the audience raised 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans in the presence of the prime minister.

Banerjee had said that such insult was "unacceptable".

The Prime Minister visited Haldia to give a boost to the BJP's campaign for West Bengal Assembly polls due in April-May this year. BJP chief JP Nadda had amped up the party's campaign on Saturday by flagging off the first Parivartan Rath Yatra.

"The Parivartan Yatra starts from here. It is not just the parivartan of the government but the parivartan of thinking. Mamata Banerjee came to power a decade ago with the slogan Ma Mati Manush (Mother, People and Soil). But down the line the mother was looted, the people weren't protected and the soil was disrespected," he said.

The next Rath Yatra will be launched on February 8 from Cooch Behar in north Bengal. The last two would be launched on February 9 from Jhargram and Tarapith in south Bengal.