Raising the issue of corruption and unemployment, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reminding people that the Trinamool Congress and the BJP had an alliance in the past in the State.
So far, in his election rallies in West Bengal, Mr. Gandhi had tried to draw a parallel between Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Modi, but on Saturday he went a step further, claiming electoral understanding between the two parties (the BJP and the Trinamool).
‘Secret understanding’
“When Modiji comes to Bengal, he speaks against Mamataji but back in Delhi he asks his press friends not to write anything against the Trinamool Congress and even asks them to support Mamata. And don’t forget that Mamata had supported the BJP in the past,” Mr. Gandhi said addressing an election rally at Basirhat in North 24 Parganas district which goes to polls on Monday.
The Congress leader also accused both the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of making false promises. “Modiji promised two crore jobs. Mamataji promised 70 lakh jobs in Bengal. But has Modiji, Mamataji given employment to a single person? No,” he said at the Basirhat rally where he shared the dais with Left Front candidates and the Rajya Sabha member of the CPI(M) Ritabrata Banerjee.
Mr. Gandhi, who addressed rallies at Shyampur and Howrah Uttar in Howrah district, tried to explain to the people about the Trinamool and Congress alliance in the 2011 Assembly polls.
Accusing the TMC government of going back on the promise of creating jobs, Mr. Gandhi said the Mamata government, like the Modi government, was anti-poor.
‘Syndicate raj’
The Congress leader accused the TMC government of having established a “syndicate raj” and said the collapse of the under-construction flyover had become symbol of the TMC government.
“Time has come to remove the corrupt government of Mamataji, and root out the syndicate raj,” Mr Gandhi said. He said if the Congress-Left coalition came to power, it would focus on “education, employment and healthcare, three things every Indians wants.”
