West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday accused the BJP of trying to vitiate the secular atmosphere of the state, but later chanted Chandi Mantra in an apparent bid to curry favour with Hindus. The CM was participating in a meeting organised by Jharkhand police to celebrate Vijayadashami when she chanted Chandi Mantra, praising goddess Durga, for 15 minutes.
The chief minister also lauded the officials of West Bengal administration for carrying out the Durga Puja idol immersion while simultaneously allowing Muhuram procession. “There was a great deal of conspiracy to spoil our effort. The mater even went to court. Can you imagine? Is this the mater serious enough to go to court,” she said.
The West Bengal chief minister’s decision to chant Chandi Mantra has surprised many, with the BJP saying she was trying to win Hindu votes.
“She always did what she thought was politically correct. She wore hijab to win Muslim votes. Now she is chanting mantra to win over Hindus. She would have to pay a heavy price. People are not stupid,” said Biswapriya Roy Chowdhury, general secretary of the BJP in West Bengal.
Sources said the CM is worried about BJP’s game plan for West Bengal even as the founder-member of her party—Mukul Roy—is all set to resign from Rajya Sabha on Wednesday. Roy had recently met senior RSS leaders, BJP leaders like Arun Jaitley, Ram Madhav and Kailash Vijayvargiya.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury claimed that he had a discussion with Roy to bring him back to Congress. “But since Rahul Gandhi objected to that, we could not do that,” said Chowdhury.
Rahul Gandhi would not like to antagonise Mamata by taking Roy into Congress.
At a time when Roy is all set to join BJP after series of meeting he had with the BJP leadership, Mamata is trying to resist the polarisation of Hindu votes by wooing Hindus.
