Grand alliance will fail, says Amit Shah

Kolkata: Kickstarting his Lok Sabha election campaign in West Bengal on Tue-sday, BJP president Amit Shah has set the target of winning more than 23 of the state’s 42 seats before the party. Vowing to upr-oot the Trinamul Congress in West Bengal, he also slammed West Ben-gal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s ‘United India’ rally at the Brigade Parade Ground to stitch a grand alliance to tackle the BJP.

Mr Shah claimed that nine of the Opposition leaders present at the event to stitch a grand alliance (Mahagatband-han) to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi dreamt of becoming the Prime Minister while sitting on the same platform. According to the BJP chief, the grand allia-nce, which is about “gr-eed and lust”, would fail. Mr Shah who recovered from swine flu a few days ago came to the state despite having a high fever.

After the rally, he, however, cut short his two-day tour and returned to New Delhi. At Sahapur in Malda, Mr Shah told a BJP rally, “I have come to request you with folded hands. Please elect the BJP in more than 23 seats from here for Prime Narendra Modi. Only you can save West Bengal from the Trinamul. The upcoming polls will decide if the Trinamul government, the murderer of democracy, will continue to stay or not.”

Referring to the massive violence in the panchayat and municipal elections in the state the BJP chief also cautioned the Trinamul against indulg-ing in the electoral malpractices. “In the Lok Sabha Elections, each and every booth will be manned by the Election Commission personnel and the central paramilitary forces troops,” he noted while assuring that no one would be able to infiltrate the state if the BJP comes to power.

On the anti-BJP coalition, Mr Shah asked, “What is this grand alliance for? It is for greed and lust. There was no slogan of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jay’ in the rally for a grand alliance. None shouted: Vande Mataram! So what good will you do for the country? The agenda of the grand alliance is clear. It is for throwing Modi out of power. We want to eliminate illness, poverty, corruption and unemployment. But they want to remove Mr Modi only.”

In an oblique reference to Ms Banerjee he said, “Mamatadi, you can not remove Modi from power just by inviting 20-25 leaders and joining hands with them at a rally. The leaders of the grand alliance want the government to be weak and loose so that they can indulge in corruption. But we want a government which will break the teeth of Pakistan.”