Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday tarred the Bengal political rivals, Trinamul and CPM, with the same brush.

“They are two sides of the same coin. If you vote for the CPM, it will go to the Trinamul. Will you vote for the Left to strengthen the Trinamul?” Modi said at his event in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, which is part of the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency that votes in the final phase of the Lok Sabha election on June 1.

Modi addressed two rallies in Bengal on Tuesday, the first at Ashoknagar under the Barasat Lok Sabha for his party nominee Swapan Mazumdar. The BJP candidate for the Calcutta South constituency, Debasree Chowdhury and the Jadavpur nominee Anirban Ganguly were present at the second event, in Baruipur.

“Both the Trinamul and the Left are partners in the INDI alliance. Both of them indulge in the politics of appeasement. Both are anti-democracy. Be it the panchayat polls, civic poll, Assembly or Lok Sabha, no elections in Bengal are without violence,” said Modi.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP had made tremendous gains in Bengal, winning 18 of the 42 seats, as the Left was pushed to third position in most of the constituencies. When the Assembly polls were held two years later, though the BJP could not hold onto the gains made in the Lok Sabha polls and throw a challenge to Mamata Banerjee’s government, the saffron party emerged as the only viable Opposition.

The Left and the Congress, contesting in an alliance with a new outfit the Indian Secular Front, could not win a single seat. ‘

For the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Left and the Congress have formed an alliance, with the Congress contesting from 13 seats.

In each of his visits to Bengal, Modi has kept the heat on the Trinamul, the strongest political force in the state with the third highest number of Lok Sabha seats, after Uttar Pradesh’s 80 and Maharashtra’s 48.

Modi urged the Bengal voters to choose the politics of performance over the politics of blood that he said was practised by the Trinamul.

“Trinamul’s politics is the politics of blood [roktakto, Modi said in Bengali]. They promote corruption. Their politics is only for their vote bank,” he said at Baruipur.

He said the Trinamul wanted to keep the youth of Bengal unemployed and poor to serve its political interests.

“Does the Trinamul have any vision for the country? For Bengal? They only work to protect the interest of their vote bank. They want the youth to remain poor and unemployed so that they can keep their shops running,” he said.

In his speech at Ashoknagar, Modi raised questions on Mamata Banerjee’s recent utterances against a section of the Hindu monks in Bengal, whom she had accused of interfering in the poll process.

“The Trinamul has started abusing the Hindu monks and ascetics. Ramakrishna Mission, Iskcon and Bharat Sevashram Sangha are respected all over the world. But Trinamul has started abusing them to carry forward its agenda of vote jihad,” Modi said.

Later on Tuesday evening, addressing Trinamul supporters at Behala Chowrasta for the party’s Calcutta South nominee Mala Roy, Mamata reiterated she could take on the BJP singlehanded.

“We are not in any alliance in Bengal. We have seen CPM’s atrocities. Whoever wants to go with them can, I cannot join forces with them.

In Bengal Trinamul Congress is fighting the BJP alone and will continue to do so. If we could overthrow the Left Front government of 34 years, we can overthrow Modi too,” she said.

She also reiterated that Modi would not return to power for a third term after the votes are counted on June 4.

“I have fulfilled all my promises. The only work pending is to throw out the BJP,” Mamata said. “Remember if he comes back to power there will be no more elections in the country, Modi is such an autocrat.”

CPM state secretary Mohammad Salim said as the elections have progressed both Modi and Mamata have upped the ante against the CPM.

“Mamata and Modi are speaking in the same voice. In the last phase, our fight is directly with the Trinamul in some constituencies and with the BJP in some. That is why they have trained their guns on us,” said Salim.