Trinamul Congress has set the target to win the Diamond Harbour seat by at least 4 lakh votes in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election, Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said today.

He was addressing a gathering at Bishnupur which falls under the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat. Banerjee had won the seat in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Mr Banerjee had won the seat in 2019 by over 3 lakh votes. BJP has fielded Abhijit Das (Bobby) against Mr Banerjee.

Diamond Harbour was traditionally a Left seat. Kamal Bose, former mayor of Kolkata was elected from the seat in 1952 as a CPI candidate. CPM stalwarts Jyotirmoy Basu and Amal Dutta were MPs from Diamond Harbour.

Trinamul Congress candidate Somen Mitra was elected from Diamond Harbour in 2009. Abhishek Banerjee was elected from 2014 and 2019. In 2019, he won by over 3 lakh votes. In 2021, Trinamul Congress candidate took a lead of 56,000 votes in Bishnupur seat. The target has been fixed at 70,000 now.

Coming down heavily on Narendra Modi, he said, “Modi comes here to speak lies. Whatever he is saying is far from reality. He does not think about the poor. The GST on biscuits is 18 per cent while there is no GST on gold biscuits and diamonds. It is a government of the rich. Modi does not make any statement how price rise can be controlled or the problem of mounting unemployment can be resolved. He believes only in divisive politics and speaks about the Hindus and Muslims. If the uniform civil code is implemented, the rights of the SCs, STs and OBCs will be taken away.”

He urged the people to ask the BJP and CPM candidate to speak on what they had done when the Centre stopped giving the dues to the state government. “We have paid the dues of 59 job card holders of MGNREGA scheme and assured that the first instalment of Awas Plus scheme will be paid by 31 December,” he said.

He said schemes worth Rs 10,000 crore will be taken in the next 10 years to develop Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat. “In the next six months, the people of Bishnupur will get piped water. Roads have been improved. During Covid, Trinamul volunteers delivered food to every household. The senior citizens under the constituency are getting Rs 1,000 per month and the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme will continue as usual.

“Do not get swayed by the lies and false promises made by the outsiders. They are like migratory birds, they will come before the election and evaporate like camphor after the polls are over. I will continue to serve you as it is my home. Rest assured, during bad times you will always get me by your side,” Mr Banerjee said.

He also took part in a roadshow, which started at Kamarpol Pal More to Sarisha More this afternoon.