On the lines of Narendra Modi's clarion call of "Congress-free India" before the Lok Sabha polls, BJP's West Bengal unit today gave a call of "Trinamool-free Bengal" for the Assembly polls in 2016.
"Narendra Modi-ji had given the call of 'Congress-free India' before the Lok Sabha polls and people responded to it positively. We from the Bengal BJP are also giving the call of Trinamool-free Bengal after the 2016 Assembly polls," senior BJP leader and in-charge of Bengal, Siddharth Nath Singh said.
Singh also denied Trinamool cosying up to BJP, as reported in a section of the media, in the wake of state Finance Minister Amit Mitra joining the finance ministers' meet convened by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
"This is absolutely rubbish. The interaction between governments of a state and the Centre should not be taken as cosying up between two parties. The BJP and Trinamool were at daggers drawn. We are going to ensure our fight against Trinamool because of its failure to deliver for the development of Bengal," Singh said.
Singh, one of the strategists behind the party's spectacular rise in Bengal in the Lok Sabha polls, along with senior BJP leader Ramlal held a two-day brainstorming session with the state BJP leadership to chalk out the plan of action to increase the party's support base in Bengal.
He said the party would organise a "Bangla Bachao rally" on June 23 to mobilise the masses against the "misrule and goondaraj" of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
"The real parivartan (change) will take place in Bengal in 2016," said Singh, referring to the call for change before the 2011 Assembly polls in which TMC ousted the Left Front from power after 34 years.
Singh said TMC head and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was angry as she was not able to play any role at the Centre even after winning 34 out of 42 seats.
Of the 39 per cent of votes TMC secured in West Bengal, 10 percent was due to rigging, Singh claimed.
"The BJP is rising in Bengal and it is in a good position in at least 148 Assembly seats out of the total 294. This is also making her angry," Singh said.
Meanwhile, some AAP supporters protested outside BJP state headquarters, following claims by BJP state president Rahul Sinha a few days back that the entire Bengal unit of AAP has merged with BJP.
The BJP leadership maintained that the entire unit of state AAP unit has merged with BJP.
