Hopeful of winning eight of the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies where polling has already been held in West Bengal, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh Tuesday claimed that the TMC will not be able to secure any of them.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has created an atmosphere of terror in the state, but things are changing now and people are attending BJP rallies in hordes ignoring threats from ruling party activists, Ghosh claimed.
This has forced TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to go for unscheduled roadshows abandoning her plan to fly across the state in helicopter, he asserted at a Meet the Press organised by the Press Club, Kolkata. "We are in a better position in the 10 seats where polling is over in the first three phases. We are going to win at least seven to eight of them. I believe that Mamata Banerjee will not be able to digest this but the TMC will draw a blank," he said.
Claiming that the political situation in West Bengal has been changing in favour of the BJP, Ghosh said, "This has not been the situation even six months ago. Now, if you go to the remotest area of the state you will see BJP there." "Mamata Banerjee saw thin attendance at her rallies and bumper crowd in ours. People are joining our rallies in hordes without any fear. And because of this, she has chosen to go for roadshows leaving the helicopter," he said. Banerjee has been holding unscheduled roadshows at various constituencies of late.
"In this situation, we are confident of winning 23 seats," said Ghosh, an MLA who is contesting from Kharagpur Lok Sabha constituency.He claimed that there is an wave in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi across the country and the state. Asked whether the "Modi wave" will be able to tackle the claims of development by Banerjee, the BJP leader said, "I cannot say whether or not there has been development. The people will decide on that. But if you (Banerjee) really have given them development, why are you (Mamata) scared of the Modi wave."
Denying Banerjee's allegation that the RSS and the BJP are helping former President Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit Mukherjee, a Congress candidate, win from Jangipur seat, Ghosh said the TMC chief is talking "nonsense" as she is sensing defeat. "We must remember that the RSS is not into politics.
The RSS is in the state for quite sometime. If they would help any party, it would have been the BJP," he said. On the TMC chief's claims that the CPI(M) and the Congress have joined hands with the BJP only to defeat her, Ghosh said, "The Congress and the CPI(M) had an agreement during the last Assembly election but they do not have it now. People are least interested in them. Now, the CPI(M) is claiming that the Congress is with the TMC. What the three will do are upto them."
