With elections in the air, the Trinamool-Bharatiya Janata Party political rivalry translated into a poster war ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi first public meeting for the 2019 Lok Sabha campaign in Bengal, a state where his party is targeting at least 22-23 seats out of the total 42.
The BJP accused the state ruling party of deliberately putting up chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s posters on top of that of the Prime Minister and said it was undemocratic.
“Just 50-70 metres away from the meeting venue of PM Modi in Durgapur, CM Mamata Banerjee’s posters are being put above PM’s banners. This is proof there is no democracy in West Bengal. When one of our workers protested against such activities he was attacked,” BJP National Secretary Rahul Sinha said.
The BJP, having lodged a complaint with the police, exuded confidence that PM Modi’s meetings would be historic and successful.
Prime Minister Modi is on a day-long visit to the state where he will address rallies in Durgapur and Thakurnagar. He will also launch a nearly 300-km-long electrified section of the railways and will inaugurate a 20-km-long Hijli-Narayangarh third line.
The Prime Minister in his speech is likely to touch upon the vexed issues of citizenship (National Register for Citizens) and the Matuas who form a three-million-plus strong community who mostly migrated from neighbouring Bangladesh since the 1950s.
NRC in Assam became a raging controversy in Bengal after nearly 4 million people found their names missing in NRC’s final draft released in July last year.