Bengal polls: PM Modi to address four rallies today in tribal-dominated pockets

Kolkata, April 19 (IANS) Amid campaigning for the forthcoming two-phase Assembly elections in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address four rallies in the state on Sunday, all in tribal-dominated constituencies.

A state committee member from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the Prime Minister, in his speeches at all four rallies, is likely to focus mainly on two points: the first being the issues of the people of the tribal communities in the state and how the Trinamool Congress-led government has been ignoring their demands for the last 15 years.

“The Prime Minister is also likely to make a strong reference to the recent controversy over the alleged insult of President Droupudi Murmu, during her recent visit to West Bengal to address an international seminar on the Santal Community,” the state committee member said.

At the same time, the state committee member added, the Prime Minister is also likely to launch a scathing attack against Trinamool Congress over the latter’s efforts along with other opposition parties in blocking the Women’s Reservation (Amendment) Bill.

The first campaign rally to be addressed by the Prime Minister will be in Barjora in Bankura district at 11 a.m., to be followed by three other rallies at Purulia in Purulia district at 12.45 p.m., Jhargram in Jhargram district at 2.45 p.m., and finally at Medinipur in West Midnapore district at 4.30 p.m.

Already, a political slugfest has started in the state over the Prime Minister’s message to the nation on Saturday night, expressing deep regret and offering his apologies to the women of India after the Constitutional Amendment Bill aimed at operationalising women’s reservation in Parliament and state Assemblies was defeated.

Trinamool Congress has issued a statement claiming that the Prime Minister’s address to the nation was filled with self-pity and pretence and an attempt to weaponise women’s political representation as cover for a delimitation conspiracy.

“The Prime Minister would have apologised when women were paraded naked on the streets of Manipur or were molested and groped on camera in Bihar, Dalit and tribal women were raped and brutalised in BJP-ruled states, Your own leaders committed some of the most ghastly acts of sexual violence and your leaders made misogynistic, derogatory, and vile remarks against women in public,” the statement read.

The CPI(M)’s politburo member and the party’s state secretary in West Bengal, Md Salim, said the Prime Minister’s address to the nation was clearly intended to mislead people and propagate divisive politics.

“The Prime Minister deliberately brought the Women’s Bill to the centre of controversy to deliberately postpone the issue of women’s reservation,” Salim added.

The West Bengal unit of the BJP has claimed that the Prime Minister’s address to the nation has given a crystal-clear message on how opposition parties misled people on the delimitation issue to block the Women’s Reservation Bill.

–IANS

src/dpb