KOLKATA: TMC national general secretary candidate and party candidate from Diamond Harbour constituency in the Rajya Sabha, Abhishek Banerjee, on Saturday accused Prime Minister Modi of “turning the meditation session in Kanyakumari into a media spectacle funded by taxpayers’ money”.
Speaking to media persons, he asserted that the party would perform better in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections as compared to its 2019 results.
The TMC claimed to win all nine Lok Sabha seats in the final round of voting on Saturday.
Speaking to media after voting, Banerjee said, “What I was saying before the elections, I am saying the same today. Compared to 2019, we will perform better. Trinamool will perform better, both in terms of seat share and vote share, compared to 2019,” Banerjee said.
Launching a fresh attack on Modi, he said, “Democracy has been suppressed in Varanasi. Nominations of candidates have been cancelled. People going to the Election Commissioner’s office were not allowed inside. If you know you have the support of the people, why are you afraid? Today there are elections in nine seats and TMC will win all of them.”
He also pointed out that while he has not made any predictions like Amit Shah, he feels that the Trinamool Party has already won more than 22 seats out of the 33 seats in Bengal that have concluded their sixth phase of elections.
Banerjee further said poverty in Bengal has left people angry at the central government. “There is huge resentment among the people against the present government which is robbing the people of poverty, not paying due taxes to all opposition-ruled states and spreading and expanding ‘jumla’ without delivering anything. Once the results are out, the people will give a befitting reply to the BJP. This is a revenge vote for the people,” she said.
Slamming PM Modi for meditating in Kanyakumari, Ms Banerjee said, “The PM is scared. He meditated using people’s tax money just to show off. I also meditated before going out. But that was at home and not to show off to people.”
He further said, “Will PM Modi’s meditation in the media spotlight benefit people? If people benefit, then I have nothing to say.”
Banerjee is contesting against CPI(M) candidate Pratikur Rahman and BJP’s Abhijit Das. She had secured 7,91,127 votes in the 2019 elections and won the seat by a margin of around 240,000 votes.
“Today, I exercised my right to vote and performed the most important civic duty that we all share. I urge you all to also vote and make your voice heard,” Banerjee said in the morning under her handle ‘X’.
Today is the day you give your answer to all the deprivations, empty promises, lies, pain and hatred.”
