TMC backs 'tukde-tukde' gang that threatened to snap Siliguri Corridor for appeasement politics: PM
Siliguri (PTI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday alleged the "tukde-tukde" gang had threatened to snap the strategic Siliguri Corridor to cut off the Northeast from the rest of the country, and the TMC gave them support from "the streets to Parliament" to serve its "appeasement politics".
Addressing an election rally at the Kawakhali ground in the northern West Bengal city of Siliguri, he described the TMC as an "anti-tribal, anti-women and anti-youth party".
Its appeasement politics have caused untold misery to the state, Modi alleged.
"The country has a 'tukde-tukde' gang, and it threatened to cut off the Siliguri Corridor. They wanted to separate the Northeast from the country.
"The TMC, which indulges in appeasement politics, supports such people from the streets to Parliament. That is the real face of TMC," he alleged, addressing his eighth rally in the state since assembly elections were declared.
The Siliguri Corridor, also known as the 'Chicken's Neck', is a narrow stretch of land in the northern part of Bengal, not more than 20-22 km wide, acting as the only land link between mainland India and its eight northeastern states.
It is a critical and highly vulnerable geopolitical bottleneck bordered by Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and is barely 130 km from the China border.
Terming it "the nation's corridor of defence as well as prosperity", Modi said the Centre was working round the clock to strengthen and develop the region on a massive scale, citing the under-construction Sevoke-Rangpo railway line, connecting Sikkim with Siliguri.
"The project will strengthen trade and tourism in the region, directly benefiting the youth of Darjeeling," he said.
Urging people to vote for a 'double-engine' government, Modi said Bengal will witness development at double the speed once the BJP assumes power in the state.
Harping on the TMC's "appeasement politics", the PM alleged that while the Mamata Banerjee government has earmarked Rs 6,000 crore in the state budget for the development of Madrassas, the fund allotted for the entire north Bengal region is "nowhere sufficient".
"The people of Bengal are now seeking answers from the TMC for every moment it spent in power over the last 15 years," Modi said, asserting that when the BJP comes to power, it will make the Mamata Banerjee-led party "pay for its misdeeds".
He alleged that the TMC has destroyed the state during its 15-year tenure and halted the implementation of Central schemes like the one for providing piped drinking water to remote tribal areas.
As a result, less than 25 per cent of the work could be completed so far, the prime minister claimed.
Terming the Mamata Banerjee government 'nirmam' (cruel), an obvious antonym to the chief minister's name, the PM said the people of the state have had enough of the TMC's "reign of fear", accusing its dispensation of bringing sufferings to the fledgling tea gardens of north Bengal.
Modi called the TMC an "anti-north Bengal and anti-tea garden party", and alleged that unbridled illegal entries caused by its "appeasement policies" are causing major demographic changes in the region, disrupting social balance and fostering unwanted changes in language and culture.
"Infiltrators are eating into local jobs. It will be too late if the menace is not stopped right away. That's why mantra is 'Kamal khilao, ghuspetia bhagao' (vote for lotus and drive infiltrators away)," he said, referring to the BJP's election symbol.
The PM highlighted the Centre's infrastructure and connectivity development initiatives for north Bengal, while alleging that the TMC government is putting up hurdles before those projects.
"A crucial stretch of the Porbandar to Silchar East-West corridor passing through Bengal is yet to be completed," he said,
Modi also underlined the BJP's promises of a special development package for north Bengal, which comprises modern engineering and medical colleges, a cancer treatment hospital and a fashion design institute.
While stating that Bengal has already given the Congress, the Left and the TMC chances to rule the state, Modi urged the people to give the BJP an opportunity to "revive its development trajectory".
"Give Modi a chance to ensure the security of the daughters, to save Bengal from infiltrators and to provide jobs to youth within the state.
"Give Modi a chance to resurrect investment, establish the rule of law, to ensure free healthcare and homes for the poor, to elevate the state from a rule of fear to a climate of trust and rescue Bengal's culture from the TMC's appeasement politics," the PM said.
Modi said the energy he had been witnessing among the people of Bengal has convinced him that the TMC's defeat is certain in the upcoming elections.
"My short travel from the Badgodra airport to the hotel on Saturday ended up becoming a 15-km roadshow as thousands of people, including children and senior citizens, lined up. It blew my mind and humbled me," he said.
"As a return gift to the blessings you have showered on me, I promise to dedicate my life to you and will keep fighting for you till my last breath," he said.
The PM was campaigning for BJP candidates in Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, where polling will be held in the first phase on April 23. The second phase of polling is on April 29, and the votes will be counted on May 4.
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Nitish likely to resign as Bihar CM after last meeting of cabinet on April 14
Patna (PTI): Bihar inched towards a political transition on Sunday with Chief Minister Nitish Kumar convening a meeting of his cabinet on April 14, following which the JD(U) president is likely to relinquish the post to make way for a BJP-led government.
According to a notification issued by the cabinet secretariat department, the meeting will take place at 11 am, after which the longest-serving CM of the state, who got elected to the Rajya Sabha last week, was expected to submit his resignation to Governor Syed Ata Hasnain.
Earlier, Kumar's close aide and JD(U) national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha had told reporters that the process of formation of a new government was likely to "roll out after April 13".
Meanwhile, the BJP, which has been approaching the prospect of having its first- ever chief minister in the state with considerable restraint, got down to business and named Shivraj Singh Chouhan as a "central observer", who would oversee the change of guard.
A statement issued by the BJP headquarters in Delhi said the parliamentary board has appointed Chouhan, a Union minister and a multiple-term former CM of Madhya Pradesh, as “central observer for electing the leader of legislature party in Bihar”.
Senior JD(U) leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, had said here earlier in the day "the new chief minister will be elected by the NDA, upon the recommendation of the BJP, which has a big role to play".
Speculations are doing the rounds that Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who holds the crucial Home portfolio in the outgoing government, is the frontrunner among contenders for the top job.
BJP leaders in the state, who have been making frantic visits to Delhi in the recent past, are keeping their cards close to the chest.
"Who will be the next CM is a decision to be taken by our central leadership," minister Dilip Jaiswal, who is a former state BJP president, had said a day ago, adding, "I am not at all in the race".
Other than Choudhary, who had joined the BJP less than a decade ago, those whose names are doing the rounds include Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai and state ministers Lakhendra Paswan and Shreyasi Singh.
According to BJP sources, all these leaders fit the bill in different ways. Choudhary is a ‘Koeri’, and his elevation could ensure that the ‘Luv Kush’ (Kurmi Koeri) equation nurtured by Kumar during his 20-year-rule remained intact in favour of the NDA, after the JD(U) supremo's departure.
Rai is a Yadav and brings the promise of support of the largest caste group in Bihar, which has been with Lalu Prasad's RJD, the BJP's principal rival in the state, for decades.
Paswan is a Dalit and his elevation could help the BJP transcend its "pro-upper caste" image, which brings its own disadvantages in the Hindi heartland, where the Mandal agitation of the 1990s has cast a long shadow, the sources said.
Singh, in her 30s, is an upper caste Rajput, but her elevation could be projected as the party giving preference to young blood.
Moreover, the party has also been trying to present itself as a champion of gender equality, by pushing through the ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ that ensures 33 per cent reservation to women in both Houses of Parliament.
However, the BJP sources admitted that there was a strong possibility of the central leadership springing a "surprise", citing examples of many states ruled by the party, where less fancied leaders have landed the top job in the recent past.
Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, a Trinamool Congress MP who spent nearly three decades in the BJP, had said, while commenting on the political situation in Bihar that "we have plenty of deserving people here but we must be beware of a baba who may arrive with a parchi".
The allusion was to Rajasthan, where Bhajan Lal Sharma was named the chief minister two years ago at a legislature party meeting, where Defence Minister Rajnath Singh was seen on camera taking out a piece of paper with the name of the first-term MLA written on it.
