Kolkata

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday lashed out at the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, calling the state’s prevailing situation “maha jungle raj” and alleging that "corruption, nepotism and appeasement of the ruling dispensation" have prevented development in the state.

Addressing a massive gathering at Taherpur in Nadia district over the phone from Kolkata, Modi urged the people to provide a chance to the BJP in the 2026 assembly polls to form a “double engine government” in the state.

The term “double engine” is used by BJP leaders to refer to the party being in power at the Centre as well as in a state.

Dense fog at the venue prevented the Prime Minister’s helicopter from landing at the makeshift helipad in Taherpur and forced him to return to the Kolkata airport, from where he later addressed the massive crowd-in-waiting in a virtual audio mode.

“Let the TMC oppose me and the BJP as much as it wants, but I fail to understand why the ruling party is holding people to ransom, making them suffer and stopping Bengal’s progress,” Modi said at the Parivartan Sankalpa Sabha, the fourth such meeting in Bengal this year.

The PM also claimed, “We will end TMC’s maha jungle raj in Bengal where corruption, nepotism and appeasement politics are ruling the roost."

The Prime Minister alleged that the culture of "cut money and commission" has stalled development in the state despite there being "no dearth of goodwill, planning and money" in store for the region, adding that welfare schemes worth thousands of crores are held up because of an “adverse state government”.

"I want to exert my full force in bringing about development in Bengal. Give the BJP a chance and bring a double-engine government here and witness how quickly we usher in development," Modi said, sounding his party’s poll bugle for next year's state elections.

He referred to the NDA’s landslide victory in the recently concluded Bihar elections, stating that the results in the neighbouring state will positively impact the party’s fortunes in Bengal.

“The election results in Bihar have opened up the doors for BJP's victory in Bengal because everyone knows that the Ganga flows into Bengal from Bihar,” the PM said.

Claiming that the popular sentiment on Bengal’s grassroots was to “gain freedom from TMC’s misrule”, the Prime Minister said, "The lanes and alleys of the state are resonating with cries of the slogan ‘Banchte chai, BJP tai’ (Need BJP to live)."

The PM addressed the crowd at a strategically poignant location in the Ranaghat area of Nadia district, which is dominated by the presence of Matua community members who are Namasudra Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, amid a growing apprehension of disenfranchisement amongst the community post the publication of the SIR draft rolls.

The rally venue was not far from the heartland of the community in adjacent Bongaon.

During his virtual address, Modi invoked Harichand Thakur and Guruchand Thakur, religious leaders and founders of the Matua sect, and hailed their contributions in the development of the community.

The Prime Minister also greeted the crowd of the Taherpur rally with the ‘Joy Nitai’ slogan in acknowledgement of the 15th-century Bengali saint from the region and also stressed the contributions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, another Bhakti saint and son of the soil, both of whom are worshipped by the Matua community.

Referring to the issue of infiltration, one of the BJP’s dominating poll agendas in the state, Modi hit out at the Trinamool Congress, alleging that “infiltrators enjoy TMC's support and patronage in Bengal”.

“The TMC is opposing the SIR exercise to save infiltrators from getting identified. They have no love lost for the tortured refugees to whom we are trying to grant citizenship through the CAA. The TMC is spreading false narratives to scare them,” Modi told the crowd at the Bangladesh-bordering district.

Referring to the “Go Back Modi” posters put up in some pockets of the district, the PM said that such slogans should have been reserved for the infiltrators.

“The TMC should have said ‘Go back infiltrators’ if they cared for this state. But they are silent on that issue. That is that party’s true nature,” he alleged.

Speaking in the aftermath of the “Bankim da” controversy in Parliament, the PM reminisced about the creator of 'Vande Mataram', calling him “Rishi Bankim Babu”, and reminded the crowd about the ongoing 150-year celebrations of the National Song.

“Vande Mataran should serve as our mantra for 21st-century nation-building. It should be the inspiration behind our Viksit Bharat motto,” he said.

He accused the TMC of “collating the vices of the Left parties within itself” despite throwing them out of power in Bengal.

Modi compared the “rapid development in Tripura” after embracing BJP rule to the “sharp slide in Bengal’s growth curve” during the TMC regime.

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“The Communists destroyed Tripura during their 30-year rule of the state. The people there reposed faith in us, and today the state is striding ahead rapidly. People had similar expectations from the TMC after it defeated the Left here, but the ruling party seems to have imbibed all the vices of the red party and welcomed their worst leaders in its fold,” he alleged.

“That’s why Bengal is falling behind in the development graph when Tripura continues to move ahead,” he claimed, promising to share his party’s vision for Bengal with the people when he returns to the state.