Kolkata/Swarupnagar: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Friday tore into BJP’s fish “lies”, saying Bengal “eats up what it produces”, and questioned the saffron party’s silence on “targeting of meat and fish shops” if it was such a big fan of the aquatic vertebrate.Banerjee’s attack came during an election rally in Basirhat’s Swarupnagar, where she said how “people are tortured and lynched in BJP-governed states for speaking in Bengali”. “In their states, they will not allow you to eat fish, meat and eggs. Who are they to decide what people will eat?” she thundered.“PM Modi talked about fish. I will talk about how the production of fish has increased in Bengal. The fish produced here is sold in local markets,” Banerjee said, stressing how Bengal’s fish production had risen from 1.7 lakh metric tonnes to 23.7 lakh metric tonnes during TMC’s term.“Why did you lie about fish production in Bihar and Bengal?” the CM asked, saying that when fish is not allowed to be eaten in Bihar, it will naturally be exported from the state.At her third rally of the day in Barasat, Banerjee asked her audience if they got sufficient fish in the market. “Modi-babu left saying we do not produce enough fish. We are number one in India as far as fish seeds and fingerling production are concerned,” she said.Bengal no longer needed to depend on Bangladesh for Hilsas after a dedicated research unit was set up in Diamond Harbour, the CM claimed.Banerjee then turned her focus on how BJP was bringing in “outsiders” to try and rig the voting. “Stay vigilant in border areas. People from other states are coming in. Assam went to polls on Thursday. Around 50,000 people from UP went to Assam and voted. BJP knew they could not win with the votes of people,” she said.The CM claimed officials in Bengal were transferred so “they could easily bring in people, cash and drugs through the borders”. “But our workers will not give them an inch.”While TMC was still verifying the data, she said multiple reports suggested that a large section of Hindu voters have been deleted following SIR. “Out of 90 lakh people who have been deleted, 60 lakh are Hindus and 30 lakh are Muslims. Mota bhai has deleted voters indiscriminately. You can trust a snake once, but you can’t trust BJP,” she said.In Bagda and Bongaon, Matua and SC voters had been “mercilessly deleted”, the CM said. “But I have full faith in people. Whatever votes remain, I am sure they will be cast in our favour. In Assam, 19 lakh people were sent to detention camps; 13 lakh were Hindus and 6 lakh were Muslims. They have not spared even those they claim to be their own,” she added.Banerjee claimed since PM Modi and Union minister Amit Shah were elected to office based on the 2024 electors’ list, that list became the basis of his “right” to be appointed as PM. “Why should the basis of your right to be PM become a cause for discrimination in my case?” she asked.“If the voters’ list includes infiltrators, then both should resign. The borders are guarded by central forces, so the central govt is responsible for infiltration. Bengal is not a factory of infiltrators (as claimed by PM Modi). It is a place for those who keep humanity above everything else. Communal harmony resides here,” she said.The CM also alleged that along with NRC, “they want to divide Bengal into three parts through delimitation”. “Every agency of this country is dancing to the tunes of BJP. It seems that everything has been sold, as if a ‘Chaitra Sale’ is going on,” she said, adding that BJP must ensure the safety of Bengalis in other states before claiming to build a “Sonar Bangla”.Banerjee later held a roadshow in support of the TMC candidate in Midnapore.
