Modi woos Bengal with Kali-Durga chants amid TMC's bias barbs
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Kolkata: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
's second rally in seven weeks in Bengal, in the industrial township of Durgapur on Friday, started with a "Jai Ma Kali, Jai Ma Durga" homage to the state's two biggest Hindu deities and largely focused on the BJP's commitment to Bengal's cultural and industrial development.
Other leaders like former MP Locket Chatterjee and assembly opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari started with the customary "Jai Sri Ram" slogan but the BJP supremo's eschewing of Ram and his focus on Bengal's deities and past political, cultural and industrial icons (like Bidhan Chandra Roy, Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Kadambini Ganguly, Dwarkanath Tagore and Bishnu Dey) gave a glimpse of the BJP's strategy in the run-up to the 2026 assembly poll: harp on the BJP's connect with Bengal to offset the Trinamool's hammer-and-tongs campaign against "the harassment and torture of Bengalis in BJP-ruled states".
The PM took the Trinamool's campaign head-on, stating "infiltrators will be investigated as per the provisions in the legal system". "We will not allow a conspiracy against Bengal's asmita. It is Modi's guarantee," he said to a cheering crowd. "The Trinamool is putting Bengal's identity at stake in trying to protect illegal immigrants and that has become a threat to national security," he added, dovetailing barbs against "the Trinamool's appeasement politics" with the the new focus on "Bengali pride".
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Modi also brought up the "classical language status" for Bengali, taking credit for "a BJP initiative", while accusing the Trinamool and the Left Front of never caring for the language. "Bengali asmita is of the highest importance for the BJP. People of Bengal get respect wherever there is BJP," he said, seeking to refute the Trinamool's recent campaign "anti-Bengali" against the BJP. CM
Mamata Banerjee
hit the streets of Kolkata with other Trinamool seniors in a rally that also showcased several Bengali migrant labourers, who recounted the torture they underwent at police's hands in BJP-governed states.
The Trinamool was "anti-development", Modi said, attributing the flight of Bengal's youth to other states to that. "People across the country used to come here for employment. The trend has changed now. Existing industries are closing down. We have to pull Bengal out of this situation," he said.
The PM wove this narrative with the BJP's usual anti-Trinamool litany as he blamed its use of "syndicate raj, gunda tax and mafia control" for driving out industries.
"It formulates policies encouraging corruption. Its sudden changes of policy hinder investment. Which industrialist will dare to come to a state where there are riots?" he asked.
Bengal's voters wanted "paribartan (change)" and "unnayan (development)", Modi said. "Give us a chance. Bengal needs an imandaar (honest), kamdaar (efficient) and damdaar (strong) administration. "Bengal will be counted among the country's top industrialised states if the BJP comes to office," he said, going back to the BJP's "double-engine" slogan of 2021 that did not work too well, with the Trinamool coming back to office winning 215 of the total 294 seats.
Modi also touched on the law-and-order situation, specifically mentioning the recent grang rape of a first-year students at a law college in Kolkata. "Hospitals are not safe for women. The Trinamool protected the accused when a daughter was tortured in a hospital. And another woman has been brutalised in a college even before the memory of that incident has faded," he said, before going to the "scams" in the education system.
"The Trinamool has launched a double attack of corruption and crime on Bengal's education system. Thousands of teachers lost their jobs because of corruption. Even the courts said it was a systemic fraud. Only the Trinamool's ouster can bring real change in Bengal," Modi said.
The PM earlier laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 5,400 crore for sectors like oil and natural gas, road and rail transport and cleaner energy production.
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