- Shah: You gave 18 seats to us in 2019. Give enough seats in 2024 to BJP from Bengal and ensure that Modi returns to power in the Centre with an overwhelming majority
- Shah: I promise that the BJP will form govt in Bengal with 2/3 majority in 2026
- Shah: CAA is a law of this land. I promise it will be implemented in this country and no one can stop it
- Shah provides statement of accounts of the money disbursed by the Modi govt: As against Rs 2 lakh crore given to Bengal by the earlier Congress govts, the Modi govt has disbursed over Rs 8 lakh crore under different heads in nine years itself
- Shah: I challenge Mamata Banerjee to suspend arrested leaders Jyotipriya Mallik, Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal from the party. She cannot. Because she is afraid they would name her nephew
- Shah: Should Ram Mandir be built in Ayodhya? BJP supporters reply: Yes. The Congress govt along with support from Mamata Banerjee had held the construction of Ram Mandir back. Modiji came and turned that dream into a reality. And on Jan 22 he will inaugurate the Temple
- Trinamul syndicate not allowing vast sums of money sent by PM Modi to reach poor of Bengal: Amit Shah at Calcutta rally
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Shah: I come from Gujarat. But in my entire life I have never seen such huge wads of cash getting recovered from the house of a minister
- Shah: If you want to remove the Mamata Banerjee govt from power in 2026 then the first step would be to reinstate Modi in power in 2024
- Shah: I want to tell Didi that you can remove Suvendu from the Assembly but you cannot silence the people of Bengal
- Amit Shah warns Mamata Banerjee over Suvendu Adhikari's expulsion from Assembly, says 'Didi your time is up'
- Amit Shah: By giving 18 LS seats and 77 Assembly seats to BJP, the people of Bengal have given clear indications that BJP would be forming the next govt here
- Amit Shah rises to speak
- Sukanta: We take a pledge on behalf of the Bengal unit of the BJP today that we will cross 35 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls
- BJP rallyists, numbering thousands, shout slogans of 'Chor Dhoro, Jail Bharo' (Catch thieves, fill jail)
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Central slogan of BJP rally 'Chor Dhoro, Jail Bharo' (Catch thieves, fill jail)
- Adhikari: Will you suspend Mamata Banerjee from the upcoming Lok Sabha elections? People: Yes.
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Amit Shah reaches meeting venue at Dharamtala
- Amit Shah leaves Race Course by car for rally venue; the senior BJP leader had landed at Calcutta airport around 1.30pm after which he took a chopper to the Race Course at the Maidan in the centre of the city
- Amit Shah's chopper flies over the rally venue. To land at RCTC from where the home minister will reach Esplanade by road
- BJP complains of non-cooperation from Calcutta police. Alleges that police are stopping venue-bound rallies and allowing vehicles to ply on roads in close proximity to the main stage
Telegraph picures
Thousands have gathered at BJP’s mega show of strength in central Calcutta where Union home minister Amit Shah will be the speaker of attraction and is expected to sound the Lok Sabha poll bugle for his party.
The public rally is being projected as a protest meeting against the alleged mass corruption and scams that have come to light during the tenure of Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government, which is in state power for three consecutive terms. And corruption is likely to be the BJP’s main issue for the upcoming general elections against the ruling dispensation in the state.
The venue of the rally is exactly where The Trinamul holds its annual public gathering to observe Martyrs’ Day on July 21, the permission for which was secured by BJP from the Chief Justice’s Division Bench of Calcutta High Court following the Kolkata Police’s initial reluctance to allow the show to take place.
The event has thrown city traffic out of gear on a weekday with multiple processions pouring into the meeting venue from both Howrah and Sealdah stations. The mobilization numbers, though, failed to match up to the Trinamul jamboree, going by the gathering scenery an hour ahead of Shah’s scheduled time of reaching.
A bitter war of words has broken out between leaders of the two opposing sides over the alleged corrupt practices carried out by a section of Trinamul leaders and the alleged stoppage of funds by the Centre for various social welfare schemes in the state.
Trinamul youth president Sayani Ghosh wrote an open letter to Shah questioning his presence in the state amid restrictions of Rs 7,000 crore central funds under MNREGS. The youth wing of the party claimed it managed to amass 51,000 letters for the home minister over “youth unemployment and failed job promises, trend of PSU privatization, India sliding down in the global hunger index and the unjust blocking of central funds". An online campaign with #MotaBhaiVoteNai (No vote for Shah and his party) was also initiated by Trinamul youth wing.