BJP and Modi make false promises only, says Mamata at Lalu's Patna rally

Farmers are dying, unemployed youths are growing at [a] fast rate like never before, she adds

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making "false promises" and their total failure to fulfil any of them for people.

"They only made false promises and did not anything else," Banerjee said in her speech delivered in Hindi at the large gathering at a rally here organised by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad.

"We have seen three and half years that passed so far in the name of 'achche din' (good days). But [the] reality on the ground is different... farmers are dying, unemployed youths are growing at [a] fast rate like never before, common people are fed up with price rise," she said.

 

Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo, said the country is ruled by a party that has changed the definition of democracy.

"Now for the, it is a government of the agencies, by the agencies and for the agencies. It is simple — the BJP and Modi have been using these agencies against opposition parties to any one who raises voices against them."

But Banerjee asserted that she is not afraid of the central government because she believes in fight and struggle from the road to the assembly and the parliament.

Accusing the central government of "trying to scare her with the help of the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation)", she said: "BJP leaders have been behaving across the country in such a fashion to demonstrate that only BJP is right and others, including [the] Opposition, are wrong. This is something to be challenge and counter because it is a dangerous trend in the country."

She also referred to the BJP's inability to control the situation in party-ruled Haryana after the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in a rape case.

Noting that the opposition is the voice of the people, she said that if youth will protest or agitate against increasing joblessness, opposition parties have to support them.

Banerjee said that the BJP would be ousted from the power in 2019 general elections if the Opposition will be united on one platform.

Several leaders of opposition parties including former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav and senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad also addressed the rally.

Leaders of the Nationalist Congress Party, the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Communist Party of India, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, the All India United Democratic Front, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and others also attended the rally.

Lalu Prasad's younger son and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, his elder son Tej Pratap Yadav, his wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi and their daughter Misa Bharti were also present at the rally attended by thousands of people despite floods affecting major parts of Seemanchal, Koshi and Mithilanchal regions of north Bihar.