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The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat chief minister, Narendra Modi, has reached out to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. In an interview to Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika, Modi termed the recent animosity between the BJP and Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) obvious result of electoral politics, which would ebb after the elections ended.
In the interview, Modi also promised a BJP-led central government under him would help resolve the state government’s stand-off with Tata Motors over the Singur issue. Modi added he would try to offset whatever loss the state suffered after Tata Motors pulled out from West Bengal to take its Nano project to Gujarat.
“I had given Tatas land for Nano in Gujarat and suffer from guilt for Bengal. It wasn’t my intent to deprive Bengal,” Modi said.
The newspaper reported that Modi, who it said had an excellent rapport with the brass of the industrial house, hadoffered to mediate between the West Bengal government and Tatas to sort out their dispute over the land in Singur. The state government and Tata Motors are locked in a legal dispute in the Supreme Court over the question of ownership of the land.
“I hope I will receive all help from the West Bengal CM for resolving the stand-off over Singur,” he said. Modi added he would work to create an industry-friendly environment in West Bengal and hoped the TMC “won’t indulge in vote bank politics on the issue” of development.
“Let Mamata Banerjee say whatever she wants to about me but I won’t utter a single word against her,” said Modi. Banerjee has been critical of Modi’s role as his state’s CM during the 2002 riots, and she has also raised the issue of Modi’s wife. “I guarantee that West Bengal’s development won’t suffer at all. Political differences between two political parties shouldn’t lead to any tension between the Centre and a state,” Modi noted.
