The Trinamul Congress (TMC) on Saturday labeled Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a 'migratory bird' who only surfaces before elections and accused the ruling BJP at the Centre of consistently depriving West Bengal economically.

In a sharp retort, TMC Rajya Sabha MP-elect Sushmita Dev wrote on X, "Narendra Modiji is again in Bengal today. Just for record, he did not come to the state in the last two years." Dev accused the BJP of consistently depriving Bengal, citing unpaid wages to job card holders and deprived housing scheme beneficiaries.

"The Centre left 56 lakh job card holders unpaid in the state for a long time, while lakhs of people who were building houses under the awas scheme remain deprived," she said.

She praised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for stepping in to cover the unpaid wages for the needy.

Describing Modi as a "seasonal bird coming for votes," another RS MP-elect, Sagarika Ghosh, criticised the BJP government for not paying the Rs 1 lakh-crore dues to the state while collecting Rs 4 lakh-crore from it.

She urged Modi to be a "Pradhan Mantri" (Prime Minister) rather than an "election mantri" (election minister).

Senior TMC leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya claimed that despite Modi's frequent visits to the state, the outcomes remained zero.

"He keeps peddling the same fictitious narratives as he has nothing new and substantial to say. He is taking credit for rail projects initiated and conceived during the stint of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee when she was the railway minister," she added.

She predicted that the BJP would face the true roar of the public at TMC's Brigade rally on March 10.

In his Siliguri rally, the prime minister called for defeating the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government, stating that the road to oust the corrupt TMC government would open from the Lok Sabha polls.

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