‘Bharat Jalao Party’: CM Mamata Targets BJP at Rally in Hooghly

The CM was greeted with ‘Jai Shree Ram’ chants when called to speak on stage.

PM Narendra Modi and CM Mamata Banerjee.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/The Quint)

While addressing a rally in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, months prior to the state legislative Assembly elections, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday, 25 January, said that the BJP should be re-christened 'Bharat Jalao Party.'

This comment comes after the CM was ‘insulted’ during the commemoration ceremony of Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary at Victoria Memorial, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is everyone's leader... They were teasing me in front of prime minister... I don't believe in guns, I believe in politics. BJP has insulted Netaji and Bengal,” ANI quoted the CM as saying at the rally in Pursura, Hooghly.

Saying that she was insulted in front of the PM, Banerjee expressed that this was his party’s culture. “Would you invite anyone to your house and then insult the person? Is this the culture of Bengal or our country? I would have had no problem if slogans hailing Netaji were raised. But they didn't do that,” Hindustan Times quoted the TMC leader.

She further went on to say that all potential TMC defectors, should leave the party as soon as possible as the party didn't need them.

What Had Happened at the Commemoration Ceremony?

At the Victoria Memorial event, Banerjee had snapped at the crowd, after she was greeted with ‘Jai Shree Ram’ chants when called to speak on stage.

“I think the government’s program should have dignity. This is a government programme and not an event of one political party. It doesn’t suit you to insult someone after inviting them. As a protest, I won’t speak anything,” she had said.

(With inputs from ANI and Hindustan Times)