Lucknow: With campaigning for the West Bengal Assembly elections coming to an end on Monday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath gave a final push to BJP’s hopes of breaking into the eastern bastion by addressing two public meetings and participating in two roadshows.Reminding the audience of Swami Vivekanand’s statement, “Say with pride that we are Hindus,” the UP CM said that it was time to draw inspiration from this proclamation once again, as the Trinamool Congress govt in Bengal was trying to change the state’s demography.“In Bengal, speaking about India’s Sanatan traditions is restricted. The state’s demography is being altered. Durga Puja and idol immersion processions are restricted, but Mamata Didi allows namaz on roads and organises iftar feasts. Before any major Hindu festival, disturbances begin, curfews are imposed and killings occur openly,” said the UP CM, raising concern about TMC’s silence on alleged cases of love jihad and land jihad and adding that in the hearts and minds of Bengal lie Maa Kali and Maa Durga, not Kaba and Medina.Speaking at Dhanekhali and Rajarhat Gopalpur, Yogi said, “Bengal, once recognised for its art, literature and industrial prosperity, has now been pushed toward deterioration. First the Congress, then the Left, and for the past 15 years, the TMC has made Bengal impoverished. When we chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’ or ‘Har Har Mahadev,’ Mamata Didi (Banerjee) gets scared. She begins to see her power shaking.”Using Hindutva to strike at the TMC leadership, Yogi said that Bengal was once the cultural capital of India but now was a place where the CM did not allow Durga Puja. He said that if there was BJP’s double-engine govt in the state, then Taraknath Temple too would have been developed on the lines of the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor.He compared the state of Bengal currently to how UP was before BJP came to power in 2017. He said that the state was facing hooliganism, curfews and riots. Now, he claimed, women and traders are safe, while love jihad and land jihad have been completely curbed.“Cows will not be slaughtered, and Hindus will not be divided. This is now visibly evident in UP. If anyone kills a cow, they will have to face the consequences. If any mafia threatens a trader or illegally seizes the property of a poor person or a businessman, the UP bulldozer will crush them,” he said.He criticised the TMC govt for having sabotaged Bengal’s rich legacy, a land, he said, that was known for Rabindranath Tagore and that gave India its national anthem. He alleged that TMC goons were all over the place, but after results were declared on May 4, they would be running away in fear of the bulldozer.Encouraging people to make use of the opportunity of the elections to respond to TMC’s goons, the CM said that those who have killed BJP workers, harassed traders, looted industries and created an identity crisis for the youth will now learn what the response to loot, bribery and hooliganism is.“Elections are the best way to free the state from lawlessness and misgovernance. Based on trends from the first phase of voting on April 23, Bengal has made up its mind for change. A double-engine BJP govt means good governance. It guarantees the benefits of govt schemes, development, safety of daughters, security of traders, employment for Bengal’s youth and self-reliance for mothers and sisters,” he said.
