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Mamata says RSS helping Cong; recalls Pranab's Nagpur visit

April 15, 2019 23:49 IST

West Bengal Chief Minister on Monday accused Congress of taking help from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to win elections in West Bengal and alleged that the organisation is campaigning for Congress candidate Abhijit Mukherjee, the son of former president Pranab Mukherjee.

"Don't force me to open the Pandora's box. The entire gameplan of the Congress will be exposed," she told an election rally at Beldanga in Muslim-dominated Murshidabad district where she recalled former president Pranab Mukherjee's participation in an event of the RSS in its headquarters in Nagpur in 2018.

Reacting to the charge by Banerjee, the Congress held her responsible for the growth of RSS in the state.

 

RSS is not helping the Congress, rather it is protecting the ruling party (Trinamool Congress) in West Bengal, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president Somen Mitra told PTI.

Banerjee alleged that RSS is campaigning for Abhijit Mukherjee at Jangipur and Adhir Chowdhury at Baharampore, while the Communist Party of India-Marxist has already sold out to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The TMC supremo also cautioned people against RSS alleged bid to bribe the voters.

She said Baharampore Congress candidate Adhir Chowdhury's tactics to win election with the help of the Left and BJP will not be successful this time.

"People should not to vote for such a party with a dubious character".

TMC candidate for Baharampore Apurba Sarkar (David), who is contesting against Chowdhury, had defected from the Congress and joined her party.

"This tactics of the Congress-Left-BJP combine will be given a fitting reply by the people of Bengal. The Trinamool Congress will win all 42 seats in West Bengal by defeating this deadly combine," she claimed.

Addressing another rally at Bhagwangola in the same district, Banerjee hit out at BJP for trying to gain political mileage by playing the religion card.

"The BJP is trying to divide the people in the name of religion. They are using it as a tool to divide the masses in Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. The culture of Bengal never supports the politics of violence," she said.

Referring to BJP's stand on implementing NRC in the country, Banerjee said she would not allow it in West Bengal.

"We are confident that we will foil this misadventure in the state," she said.

She also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for doing politics by taking the name of the army.

Reacting to Banerjee's comments, Mitra said that the Congress had never joined hands with the BJP, but it was the TMC supremo who had done so.

"The RSS has set a firm foot in West Bengal because of Mamata Banerjee, who had brought the BJP here through her party's alliance with the NDA," he said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had in a rally at Raigunj on April 10, underscored the Congresss position as the principal force against the BJP.

He had pointed out that the Congress had never joined hands with the BJP, but Banerjee had done so in the past to Banerjee's earlier charges against the two candidates of the party of fighting the polls with RSS help.

It is Congress which is fighting against BJP across the country. Unlike TMC it had never been part of the National Democratic Alliance in the past, it had never aligned with the saffron party, Gandhi had said.

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