Shah's speech 'devoid of substance', BJP 'hungry for votes' amid pandemic: TMC

TMC slammed Amit Shah saying that Shah is just hungry for votes and nothing else. Besides, TMC said Shah's speech was full of rhetoric and asked why he had been silent on the India-China standoff.

Kolkata (West Bengal): Insisting that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's speech at the BJP's virtual rally for West Bengal was "devoid of substance", the TMC on Tuesday said the saffron party was "hungry for votes" even when the state was battling the double whammy of COVID-19 and destruction caused by Cyclone Amphan.

Addressing the rally earlier in the day, Shah criticised the TMC-led Bengal government for its alleged apathy towards migrant workers. He said these labourers would ensure Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's exit in the 2021 assembly polls as she had "insulted" them by terming Shramik Special trains run to ferry them home during lockdown "Corona Express".

The Union minister also attacked Mamata Banerjee over the alleged culture of political violence in the state, saying the only industry that was flourishing in Bengal was that of "crude bombs and illegal weapons".

Senior Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Abhishek Banerjee said Shah's speech was full of rhetoric and asked why he had been silent on the India-China standoff.

"As usual, the speech of Amit Shah Ji was all rhetoric and no substance. Nonetheless, since he has talked about his dream of seeing 'EXIT' of TMC, I would like to ask him one more time - 'When is the Chinese EXITING our territory'," Banerjee tweeted with hashtag #BengalrejectsAmitShah.

Indian and Chinese armies have been engaged in a standoff for a month now in several areas along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. Both countries are trying to defuse the crisis through diplomatic and military channels.

Senior TMC leader and state education minister Partha Chatterjee also took to Twitter to attack Shah.

"At a time when the state is battling a pandemic and a natural disaster, Amit Shah's priorities are crystal clear. Bengal, remember the face of this man who is just hungry for your votes and nothing else," he said.

The official Twitter handle of the TMC said, "Amit Shah, someone who's himself put the inclusivity of India in danger, talks about 'restoring' the culture of Bengal. Doesn't he remember it was Mamata Banerjee who restored statue of Vidya Sagar, vandalised by his men in front of his own eyes."

A bust of the 19th-century polymath and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was vandalised during a clash between TMC and BJP workers on May 14 last year when Shah was holding a roadshow in Kolkata ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Both the parties had accused each other of desecrating the bust.

(PTI report)