West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to meditate at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari amid India’s Lok Sabha elections, saying she would lodge a complaint with the Election Commission if the meditation was televised.
“Will a person who meditates do it in front of the camera? He basically wants to show his meditation to people. This place is good. Swami Vivekananda loved this place. He (Modi) will meditate there. He says he is God, then why should he meditate…,” Banerjee said in Baruipur in Jadavpur constituency while campaigning for the final phase of elections scheduled for June 1.
The TMC supremo said televising PM Modi’s meditation violates the code of conduct for the Indian Lok Sabha elections. “He should not campaign like this. He can meditate but cannot televise it. This will be a violation of the model code of conduct and we will file a complaint with the ECI.”
Modi is scheduled to visit the Vivekananda rock memorial off the coast of Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu on Thursday. The prime minister will meditate at the revered Dhyan Mandapam for three days.
Banerjee also attacked the opposition CPM and BJP, accusing them of reaching an agreement in the Dum Dum constituency, which is contested between three strongmen — TMC’s Saugata Roy, Indian National Congress-backed CPM candidate Sujan Chakraborty and BJP’s Shilabhadra Dutta.
“There is an understanding between the CPI(M) and BJP camps to defeat the Trinamool,” Banerjee alleged. “In this Lok Sabha election, the BJP will shift its votes to the Left and in the Baranagar Assembly by-election, the Left will shift their votes to the BJP.”
However, Sujan Chakraborty questioned the TMC leader’s claim. He said, “Why didn’t the Chief Minister say this when she came to Dum Dum? Why did she say this in Baruipur? Does she have any other calculation? She knows that the TMC will lose in both Dum Dum and Jadavpur.”
BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya also said Banerjee was aware that the TMC would lose in Dum Dum. “We lost in Dum Dum last time due to a small mistake but by just 53,000 votes. This time we will win in Dum Dum,” he added.
