Kolkata: Hitting out at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BJP president Amit Shah today said the countdown for the end of the "corrupt" Trinamool Congress regime in West Bengal has begun and vowed to uproot the party from the state.
He told a massive rally, the permission for which was given by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation only yesterday after the Calcutta High Court intervened, that Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha victory march would culminate with the BJP's victory in the Assembly poll scheduled for 2016.
"It is the slogan of Narendra Modi to make West Bengal free from TMC regime. After the victory in the Lok Sabha poll, the BJP has won in Harayana and Maharashtra. The party will also win in Jharkhand, J&K, Bihar and Delhi. But the victory of the BJP and Narendra Modi will be complete only after it forms government in Bengal," Shah thundered.
Responding to Banerjee's jibe at him, Shah said, "A few days back Mamataji asked who is Amit Shah?, Didi if you can hear and if you can see, please see that I am Amit Shah, a very small worker of BJP. I have come to Bengal to uproot corrupt TMC regime from the state."
"By pursuing vote bank politics and giving shelter to Bangladeshi infiltrators. By doing dramas and making emotional pitches, you can't fool the people of Bengal anymore. The youths of this state want employment as they too want to go ahead along with the rest of the country," Shah said.
Shah said that Bengal needed a government which was patriotic and did not make effort to save the culprits of the Burdwan blast.
"Bengal needs a government which is patriotic, which doesn't save the culprits of the Burdwan blast, which does not indulge in corruption, rather puts the culprits behind bars," Shah said.
He hoped that within the next one and a half years, Bengal will go along the path of the change for the sake of development.
Shah also appealed to the people of Bengal and Kolkata to kickstart the BJP's victory march in the KMC polls in May next year.
"I will appeal to the people of Bengal and Kolkata to kickstart BJP's victory march in next year's KMC polls in May. It will start with Kolkata, as Kolkata has always been in the forefront of bringing change. But now Bengal has moved backwards, so the new change has to begin again from Kolkata," Shah said.
He also alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government was creating road blocks for the Centre in implementing various development policies, including the Jan Dhan scheme.
"The TMC regime is not cooperating with the central government in implementing various central policies including Jan Dhan schemes. They are creating hurdles for the Centre in implementing policies in Bengal."
"If Mamata Banerjee is in power, she won't allow Modiji to pursue development policies for Bengal. So if Bengal wants development, then BJP needs to come to power. We promise that within five years we will transform Bengal," he said.
Shah hailed the economic policies of the Modi government and praised the initiatives taken by the government to bring down oil prices.
Saying it is Modi's dream to make eastern India strong, Shah said, "If we have to make eastern India strong, we have to win Bengal. The communists have ruled for three decades. The TMC then took charge, but it awfully failed to bring about any development in the last 3.5 years. Bengal is today moving backwards," he observed.
Shah criticised the "failure" of the TMC government to bring in new investments and said most industrial units were closing down in Bengal.
