Mamata Banerjee Government. The TMC’s counter-document questioned women’s safety in the BJP-ruled state and accused the party of selective anger, setting the stage for a heated rhetoric war ahead of the polls.
The chargesheet shifts the focus back to the BJP, arguing that issues such as law and order and women’s safety are equally pressing in the saffron party-ruled state. TMC leaders framed their accusations as a rebuttal to what they said were politically motivated charges, while positioning the BJP’s campaign as an attempt to depart from its governance record elsewhere in the country.
Earlier in the day, Amit Shah addressed a press conference in Kolkata and unveiled the BJP’s “charge sheet” against the TMC government, accusing it of leading “15 years of fear, corruption and violence”. Shah cast the election as a choice between “fear and trust”, claiming the Mamata Banerjee-led government had institutionalized a politics of intimidation and misinformation.
He further claimed that West Bengal has become a hub of criminal gangs and an “industrial graveyard” while linking the law and order situation in the state to wider national security issues. Shah also pointed to infiltration as a key issue and claimed that Bangladesh remained the main route for illegal entry into the country after neighboring Assam imposed tighter controls.
Highlighting the party’s organizational drive in the state, the senior BJP leader praised Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari for raising issues of economic woes, chaos and alleged governance failures in his state-wide campaign.
West Bengal is scheduled to hold polls in two phases on April 23 and April 29, covering 294 constituencies, with counting scheduled for May 4. The dueling charge sheets are expected to be at the center of campaign rhetoric as the two parties seek to sway voters in a closely watched election contest.