In an apparent attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) chalked out seven-phase polls to enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues to carry out extensive campaigning using the nation’s resources.
Polls have been scheduled from April 19 to June 1 so that Modi and his cabinet colleagues can travel on special planes across the country before every phase to “overwhelm the Opposition”, said Mamata Banerjee while speaking at a public meeting at Gajol in Malda district.
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“On earlier occasions, elections used to be over by May but this year, it has been extended till June 1 to enable Modi to visit various places on military planes, while we are made to arrange for our own transport, including helicopters, which are also being booked by BJP leaders so that we get little space,” she alleged.
“People are greatly inconvenienced by the scorching heat but Modi is unperturbed as they (BJP leaders) are campaigning in VVIP comfort with all facilities at hand,” the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo also said.
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She also alleged that though the Union council of ministers led by Narendra Modi is a caretaker cabinet after the announcement of elections and the EC is in charge of running the administrative machinery, the poll body is “toeing the line dictated by Modi and his party colleagues”.
Raising the issue of MGNREGA funds’ release, Mamata Banerjee said that despite being elected from West Bengal in 2019 none of the BJP and Congress MPs took up the state’s cause regarding the release of MGNREGA funds by the Centre or building houses for the poor under PM Awas Yojana.
“On the other hand, our (TMC) MPs were manhandled and arrested when they went to Delhi in November last year to demand the release of MGNREGA funds,” she added.
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Published: 20 Apr 2024, 08:27 PM IST