'Goons from UP donning saffron clothes, chewing Pan Bahar destroying Bengal's culture': Mamata
BJP and TMC are at loggerheads in West Bengal ahead of the assembly polls.
Launching a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the saffron party of bringing in outsiders to the state for the Assembly election in Bengal.
"They (BJP) are bringing goons from outside. We don't call people who hail from Bengal 'bohiragoto' (outsider)...Goons from Uttar Pradesh donning saffron clothes and chewing Pan Bahar are being sent here, they are destroying our culture," Banerjee said in a public meeting in Bengal's Bishnupur.
Addressing an election rally in Kanthi in the Purba Medinipur district on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that Bengal was the land of icons like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose and on this land, no Indian was an outsider.
"Bengal brought together the people of India through Vande Mataram, and on that land, Mamata-didi is talking about 'bohiragoto' (outsider). No Indian is an outsider here, they are the children of Bharat Mata," PM Modi said.
BJP and TMC are at loggerheads in West Bengal ahead of the assembly polls. The first phase of the assembly polls will begin on March 27. In the first phase, 30 seats covering all assembly constituencies from the districts of Purulia and Jhargram and a segment of Bankura, Purba Medinipur and Paschim Medinipur will go to the polls.
Elections to the 294-member Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.