Setting a target of 35 Lok Sabha seats from Bengal in 2024, BJP leader and home minister Amit Shah announced that the Mamata Banerjee government would collapse by 2025 before completing its full term if Narendra Modi is elected Prime Minister once more.

While BJP state leaders like Sukanta Majumdar have so far been talking about eyeing 25 seats from the state in the next general elections, which in itself is an improvement of seven seats over the party’s tally of 18 seats in 2019, the enhanced target by 10 seats set by Shah was more of a message to the state leaders than to the voters, political observers felt.

Shah was addressing a public meeting at the Benimadhab School Maidan in Suri, Birbhum, on Friday afternoon as part of the party’s national Pravaas campaign to touch base with voters at the seats where BJP lost the previous Lok Sabha polls by narrow margins.

“The people of Bengal gave us 77 seats in the 2021 state elections. They have increased our responsibility. Give us more than 35 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and ensure Modi is voted to power again,” Shah said.

“Bring BJP back in 2024 and this Mamata Banerjee government will collapse by 2025,” the home minister declared and added: “Electing Modi as the country’s next Prime Minister would only be the trailer to the larger picture of removing Mamata from Bengal.” The tenure of the current state government, Mamata Banerjee’s third consecutive term in power, is till 2026.

Shah minced no words in jointly targeting both Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek from his dais in Birbhum. “The only way to stop the crimes of Didi-Bhaipo is to bring BJP to power. Only BJP can stop violence, illegal immigration, cow smuggling and corruption which are taking this state down. Mamata Banerjee doesn’t care about the youth of Bengal who are running helter-skelter for employment. Her only target is to make her nephew the next chief minister of this state,” Shah said.

Obliquely calling the Bengal chief minister a dictator, the home minister announced: “The BJP will not allow Mamata’s Hitler-like rule to persist in Bengal.”

People at a public meeting by Amit Shah at the Benimadhab School Maidan in Suri, Birbhum, on Friday afternoon Twitter/@FAM4TMC

“The Ram Navami violence took place in Bengal because of Mamata Banerjee government’s appeasement policies. Bring BJP to power and nobody will ever have the courage of attacking Ram Navami rallies here,” he added.

“Mamata Banerjee can dream as much as she wants to make her nephew the next chief minister of this state, but I assure you that the next CM of Bengal will come from BJP,” Shah prophesized.

Although Shah, as expected, sounded the poll bugle for the state unit of the party, he was conspicuously silent about the possible implementation deadline of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) before the general elections next year. The CAA issue has been sensitive for the party which is struggling to hold on to support from the Matua community and has been consistently demanding its quick implementation in the wake of sustained opposition by Mamata Banerjee. During his campaigns for the 2021 state polls, Shah himself had said that the process of framing of rules for the Act was taking longer than usual because of the onslaught of the Covid19 Pandemic and would be done on war footing once the Pandemic threat passed.

On Friday he did, however, touch upon issues of illegal immigration, violence and corruption to take on the Trinamul Congress.

“Mamata Banerjee promised 3 lakh jobs for her youths. Where are the accounts for that? Instead her leaders are steeped in recruitment corruption. Two truck loads of cash were recovered from the homes of her minister,” Shah pointed out and took a dig at TMC’s Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal saying, “The Birbhum leader who has been thrown in jail in cow smuggling case still remains the party’s district president. That proves TMC’s affinity for corruption.”

Speaking of violence in the district, Shah said: “The NIA recently recovered 80,000 detonators and over 27,000 kilos of ammonium nitrate from Birbhum. Countless people would have lost their lives had NIA not caught the consignment meant for subversive activities. Mamata Banerjee has converted this district into a den of terror.”

“No matter what the hindrances are, we will make Bengal violence-free,” Shah pledged while paying respects to the next of kin of the victims of Bogtui carnage right at the beginning of his speech.

In his attempt to justify the choice of Modi over Banerjee, the home minister said: “Can Mamata give befitting replies to Pakistan? Can Mamata eradicate terrorism from Kashmir? Only Modi can.”

Significant response from TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee to Amit Shah's allegations

Shah’s statements were countered by the Trinamul Congress with both sarcasm and seriousness. Calling Shah a “seasonal bird”, the party created a social media hashtag #AmitShahByeBye and tweeted, “GO BACK TO DELHI and DO YOUR JOB. Clearly, no one in Bengal is interested in your trash-talk, your lies, your hate-laden agenda. Go spew venom elsewhere!”

“Shah avoided responding to the questions we raised before him on the eve of his visit. We asked why central funds under MNREGS were stopped and why his party workers indulged in Ram Navami violence, but he never answered then,” said Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Trinamul MP.

“It was ironic to hear Amit Shah talk about corruption when Suvendu Adhikari, Bengal LoP and an accused caught on camera taking bribes, was sitting right next to him on the dais,” added minister Sashi Panja.

Trinamul plans public meeting

Trinamul has planned a public meeting to counter Shah’s meeting which would take place at the same venue on 16 April, Sunday, party sources confirmed. Firhad Hakim, Calcutta mayor and minister, would be the main speaker at the meeting. Unlike the BJP meeting, however, the counter rally would happen during the morning hours, from 9 am to 11 am, taking into consideration the prevailing heat wave condition and the ongoing Ramzan fasting, a party leader said.

Shah, following his public meeting, also inaugurated the district party office in Suri built over a 10 cottah plot adjacent to NH-14. The home minister held a meeting with party’s district leaders in the presence of Suvendu Adhikari and Sukanta Majumdar at that venue before heading for Calcutta where he had a state core committee meeting lined up for late evening.