Harping on issues of development and employment, Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh urged voters to elect saffron party to power, enabling them to emulate Gujarat growth model in the state.

Employment opportunities in Bengal are scarce and under compulsion are leaving Bengal for jobs, he said.

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Criticising the erstwhile Left Front dispensation for alleged politicisation of the education system, he said Bengal, which once produced the finest scientists, doctors and engineers, is now churning out migrant labourers.

Bengalis do not make it to merit lists of competitive exams anymore, he stated.

“Give us a chance so we could change this scenario in Bengal and turn the state into a business and industry hub like Gujarat so youths don’t have to look for jobs elsewhere. Trinamul Congress pushed out Tata’s Nano car manufacturing from here for vested political gains. We won’t let this happen in Bengal if BJP comes to power,” said Ghosh.

Reacting to Ghosh’s assertion, the Trinamool Congress, which has time and again trained guns on the BJP over the 2002 communal strife in the western state, claimed that Gujarat is known for riots and encounters and not for development.

“It’s not development that we associate Gujarat with. Over 2,000 people were killed, encounter deaths of people like Ishrat Jahan have occurred. If Bengal is turned into Gujarat or UP, then here, too, people will get killed in encounters. We want our state to remain the way it is,” senior TMC leader and state minister Firhad Hakim said.

Hakim, to drive home his point, also said that the Tata Nano factory which was set up in Gujarat has closed down, while the MSME sector in West Bengal was making good progress.

The Nano plant was moved to Sanand in Gujarat from Singur in West Bengal in 2008, following a prolonged agitation led by Mamata Banerjee, alleging forced acquisition of fertile land by the then Left Front government.

“Industries will come up in Bengal as the situation is favourable and the state has a stable government,” Hakim said.

Echoing him, state panchayat minister and senior TMC leader Subrata Mukherjee contended that the BJP will never be able to realise its dream of winning Bengal polls, likely to be held in AprilMay next year.

“It is good to dream, but one should see to it that the dream does not turn into a nightmare,” Mukherjee said.

Ghosh steadfastly believes that India will repose their faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he keeps his poll promises and it is one of the reasons he was elected twice.

“In this state, everything remains same without any development work despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s rule for nearly a decade in the state but did not fulfill her poll promises,” he said.

Ghosh today openly challenged the state food and supplies minister and senior TMC leader Jyotipriya Mallick that he will be defeated next time in Assembly poll and BJP candidate will fight him anywhere and win against him.

“Looting of ration items like rice and wheat is rampant during severe pandemic crisis and Amphan disaster. Around 150 trucks loaded with wheat were being smuggled to Bangladesh. Who got the cut money and benefits?

Mallick will not be forgiven. People know everything,” he said. Mallick countered that Ghosh is ailing and suffering from mental illness.

“I am an educated man. I don’t want to answer such tasteless statements. BJP national president JP Nadda must send Ghosh to a treatment centre. I must say TMC will win 33 seats out of 33 seats in North 24 Parganas,” he said.