Mamata retraces Modi’s roadshow route

A day after Prime Minister Naren dra Modi’s massive roadshow for the BJP in Kolkata from Shyambazar 5-point crossing to the house of Swami Vivekananda in Simla Street, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Ba nerjee on Wednesday walked the same stretch to campaign for her Trinamool Congress candidate in the Kolkata North seat. Trinamool Congress sourc es said that the decision for a tit-for-tat roadshow was decided by the party think tank late yesterday night to offset the possible impact of the Prime Minister’s out reach in the Kolkata North seat in which the incumbent MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay is facing a difficult situation. Tapas Roy, a Trinamool Con gress MLA, who defected to the BJP two months back, is the party’s candidate. After the roadshow, the Trinamool Congress supre mo, referring to the Prime Minister’s plans to medi tate at Vivekananda Rock in Kanyakumari, said that the Trinamool Congress would complain to the Elec tion Commission if Modi’s meditation in Kanyakumari is televised, alleging that it would amount to violation of the Model Code of Conduct. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to medi tate at Vivekananda Rock Memorial, a monument built in tribute to Swami Vi vekananda, in Kanyakumari following the culmination of the Lok Sabha polls cam paign on May 30, according to BJP leaders. “We will complain. He can meditate, but televisions can not show it,”” she said, alleg ing that this would amount to a “violation of the MCC.” “Does anyone have to get cameras for doing medita tion?” she asked, claiming that it was a way of cam paigning during the silence period between the end of campaign and the poll date. According to BJP leaders, Modi will meditate from the evening of May 30 to the evening of June 1 at Dhyana Mandapam, the place where ernment-owned companies. Vivekananda — a spiritual icon admired by Modi — is believed to have had a divine vision about ‘Bharat Mata’. The Trinamool Congress chief claimed that “Modi goes for meditation for 48 hours before the final phase polling is to be held in every election. The Prime Minister had gone on a similar meditation exer cise in a Kedarnath cave after the 2019 poll campaign.” Banerjee also accused the BJP dispensation at the Cen tre of selling off stake in Government-owned companies.

“If they (BJP) come back to power this time, there will not be any political party, elections, independence, re ligion, humanity or culture,” she said. The TMC supremo also rejected Modi’s statement that the BJP would emerge with the best results this election in Bengal, stating: “They have lost, they will get roso golla (zero) in Bengal.” She stated that the Trin amool Congress would give its “support” to the Opposi tion I.N.D.I.A. alliance for forming a Government in Delhi. She also urged the people not to vote for the CPIM or Congress in Bengal. “That will help the BJP,” she said in the campaign meeting at Baruipur before the seventh phase election to nine Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. “Had I not come out of the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress, then even today we would not have been able to defeat the CPIM in Bengal,” she said. Stating that she fought against the CPIM for 34 years to throw its Govern ment out of Bengal, she said “If we could achieve that, we can also defeat the BJP and we will do it.”