BJP will win 22 plus Lok Sabha seats in Bengal: Amit Shah
Purulia, June 28: Claiming his party has made massive inroads in West Bengal over the past four years, BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday said the saffron outfit would become the "number one" political force in the state by winning more than 22 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections.
Accusing the state's Mamata Banerjee government of resorting to massive violence and atrocities against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers, he said the people would oust the Trinamool Congress regime from power in the near future.
"The BJP was in fourth position in West Bengal in the 2014 elections and now it has successfully emerged as the second largest party. In the 2019 elections, the BJP will become the number one party in Bengal by winning more than 22 Lok Sabha seats.
"When we counted these 22 seats last night, I deliberately asked them to leave out Purulia from that list as I wanted to hear it from you people. So tell me who will win the Lok Sabha seat here? Should we count Purulia as the 23rd seat BJP will win in Bengal?" Shah asked at a public meeting here amid massive cheers from the crowd.
Referring to the recent rural polls in the state, the BJP chief said more than 20 of their activists were killed during the election process, and the party will not let the bloodshed of its workers go in vain.
"Twenty BJP activists were murdered in Bengal and youth activists were specially targeted... 1,341 activists have gone missing and a total of 65 people were killed during the Bengal rural polls.
"If the Mamata Banerjee government thinks that it would be able to retain power in Bengal through violence and atrocities, I challenge them... the bloodshed of our activists will not go in vain. Her government will not be able to stay in power for long," Shah said.
He said even though the Panchayat election did not hold any threat to Banerjee's chair or to her party, the state government unethically stopped a large number of BJP activists from filing nominations and casting votes and even resorted to murdering its workers after the poll results.
"I can take responsibility to say that nearly two crore people in the state were not allowed to vote in the Panchayat polls. In spite of this, the BJP came out victorious in more than 70,000 Gram Panchayat seats in Bengal. This shows who will form the next government here," shah added.
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RR beat RCB by six wickets in IPL
Guwahati (PTI): Blistering fifties by Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Dhruv Jurel powered Rajasthan Royals to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru in their IPL match here on Friday.
Sent in to bat, RCB rode on a fighting half-century by skipper Rajat Patidar (63) to post 201 for 8.
Virat Kohli (32), Romario Shepherd (22) and Venkatesh Iyer (29) also chipped in with useful contributions.
In reply, Sooryavanshi (78 off 26 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (81 not out off 43 balls) shared a 37-ball 108-run partnership for the second wicket to set the platform. Krunal Pandya (2/30) tried to bring them back with back-to-back wickets.
But Jurel, in the company of Ravindra Jadeja (24), completed the task with another 68-run stand, with two overs to spare.
For RR, Jofra Archer (2/33), Ravi Bishnoi (2/32) and Brijesh Sharma (2/37) took two wickets.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru: 201 for 8 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 63; Jofra Archer 2/33, Ravi Bishnoi 2/32, Brijesh Sharma 2/37).
Rajasthan Royals: 202 for 4 in 18 overs (Vaibhav Sooryavanshi 78, Dhruv Jurel 80 not out; Krunal Pandya 2/30, Josh Hazlewood 2/44).
