BARASAT/KOLKATA: Sandeshkhali remained the focal point of PM Narendra Modi’s Bengal campaign at his third rally in the state in five days, chipping away at Trinamool Congress’s support among the 3.5 crore-strong women electorate and projecting BJP as the only party standing up for them.
Modi said atrocities on women in the restive North 24-Parganas pocket that arrested Trinamool strongman Sheikh Shahjahan used to lord over reflected the governing party’s alleged apathy towards them.
As in his previous campaign stops, Sandeshkhali resonated almost throughout Modi’s 38-minute speech in Barasat, around 82km from the state’s latest political flashpoint.
“Trinamool ghor paap korechhe (Trinamool has committed grave sins). Such an anti-women govt can never work for women’s uplift. Sandeshkhali has shown BJP is the only voice of tormented women,” the PM said.
Alluding to Shahjahan, he said Trinamool govt was still “trying its best to protect the accused despite setbacks in Calcutta high court and Supreme Court”.
He predicted that “women’s rage against Trinamool” wouldn’t be confined to Sandeshkhali. “It will spread across Bengal and India. I can see nari shakti is determined to end Trinamool’s mafia raj”.
At Barasat, the PM anchored BJP’s women-centric approach to the party’s new “Modi Ka Parivar” campaign, born out of RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s jibe that he “does not have a family to call his own”.
“They want to know where Modi’s parivar is? They should look at the sisters who are here with me. This is my family. I count every mother and sister as part of my family...Every time I am in trouble, Bengal’s women back me like Durga,” he said.