West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "peddling lies to mislead the voters" in the poll-bound state. Banerjee was addressing a rally in Siliguri following her protest march over LPG price hike.
Her tirade comes on a day Modi, who is in the state for campaigning ahead of the assembly polls, accused her of nepotism and also of "betraying and insulting" the people of West Bengal who trusted she will bring about a change after the Left rule.
Addressing a rally at the Brigade Parade Grounds, Modi said, "You (Mamata) have betrayed and insulted the people of Bengal who trusted that you will be the harbinger of change after the end of the Left rule. You smashed to smithereens (chaknachoor) their hopes and dreams."
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He alleged Banerjee promoted nepotism while neglecting the people who fondly called her 'Didi'. "Bengal chose you in role of 'Didi' but you preferred being 'bua' to your 'bhatija'," he said. The BJP has been accusing Banerjee of trying to install her nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek as the next chief minister.
Meanwhile, Banerjee hit back at Modi accusing him of making "empty" promises over the years, and said that people no longer trust him. She sought to know "why the PM has not yet deposited Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of every citizen, as promised by him before 2014 Lok Sabha polls".
"You have made many empty promises. People will not accept your falsehood every day. We demand you make LPG cylinder affordable to every citizen of the country. You have made LPG cylinders inaccessible for the common man," Banerjee said in her address.
The Bengal CM also said that Modi should be "ashamed of his habit of telling lies". "He gives speech in Bangla, but the script in always written in Gujarati, and kept under a transparent sheet of glass before him. He just pretends that he knows Bangla well," she said.
"Your party had vandalised Vidyasagar's bust. Your party dishonoured Birsa Munda. Your party wrongly said Rabindranath Tagore was born in Santiniketan. This shows your depth of knowledge about Bengal and its culture," she said.
Asking people to raise their voice against the "riot- mongering BJP", Banerjee said, "People of Bengal, who had been living in peace casting aside barriers of community and language, would come under grave threat if a divisive force such as the saffron party comes to power in the state."
(With PTI inputs)
