Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked the women's reservation bill to target the ruling TMC in the state during a campaign rally in Kolkata on Friday, accusing the party of obstructing the genuine empowerment of women. He also accused the TMC of "robbing" West Bengal.
Modi claimed that while the country wants women's participation in democracy to increase, the TMC does not.
"...we want to increase women's participation in every scheme... But a few days ago, how did the TMC and its partners in the parliament oppose women's reservation? The country wants women's participation in politics to increase, but the TMC does not," he said during the rally.
He alleged the under the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government, women are not safe in the state.
Expressing confidence that the BJP will come to power in West Bengal after May 4, the PM said that then rapists and criminals will not be safe.
Modi said, "The first phase of the voting ensures that in many districts, the TMC will not even open its account. In the second phase, you must put a seal on the TMC's resolute defeat and the resolve for a 'Viksit Bengal'..."
The prime minister said the BJP will usher in a new era in West Bengal even as he urged people to turn up in large numbers for the second phase of polls on April 29.
Nearly 92 per cent of the 3.60 crore electors turned up to vote in the first phase of the West Bengal assembly polls on Thursday.
Further, he accused the TMC of working against Dalits and backward classes.
"The Central government runs many schemes for them, but the TMC government sitting here is against the Dalit and deprived classes. They are against the Central government’s schemes for Dalits... the solution to these problems is not far off. After May 4th, a strong BJP government will be formed. With this, the problems of Bengal will end," the prime minister said.
Stepping up his attack on the ruling party over women's safety, Modi described the TMC as an "anti-women party" and said the BJP believed in a "women-led development model".
Referring to women candidates fielded by the BJP, Modi said the party had given representation to those who had suffered injustice.
"This mother helped her daughter become a doctor. But that daughter was taken away from her by the TMC. We have made that mother a candidate," Modi said while referring to the party's Panihati candidate, the mother of the RG Kar rape-murder victim.
"The BJP has also given an opportunity to the victim of Sandeshkhali to lead. When the women of Bengal ask for justice, the TMC tells them not to step out of their homes," Modi alleged.