No Indian outsider in West Bengal, BJP CM will be son of soil: Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and said, "We are being called 'tourists', fun is being made of us, we are being insulted. Didi, people of Rabindranath's Bengal don't consider anybody outsider."

Pic Courtesy: ANI

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (March 24) said that if voted to power, ‘a son of the soil’ will be made the BJP chief minister of West Bengal and no Indian is an outsider here. 

Slamming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for calling BJP leaders ‘bohiragoto (outsiders)’, Modi said Bengal was the land of icons like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose, in such place no one was an ‘outsider’. 

जिस बंगाल से गुरुदेव ने हर भारतवासी को एक माला में पिरोया, उस बंगाल में दीदी बोहिरागोतो की बात कर रही हैं।

बंगाल में बीजेपी की जो सरकार आप बनाने जा रहे हैं, उसमें मुख्यमंत्री की जिम्मेदारी इसी मिट्टी की संतान की होगी, इसी बंगाल की भूमि से होगी। pic.twitter.com/N5xaR7BLOr — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 24, 2021

“Bengal brought together the people of India through Vande Mataram, and on that land, Mamata-didi is talking about 'bohiragoto'. No Indian is an outsider here, they are the children of Bharat Mata," he said.

"We are being called 'tourists', fun is being made of us, we are being insulted. Didi, people of Rabindranath's Bengal don't consider anybody outsider," the PM said attacking the West Bengal CM. 

Addressing an election rally in Kanthi in the Purba Medinipur district, PM Modi said that when BJP will form a government in the state, the CM will be a son of the soil.

"You are maligning Nandigram and its people before the entire country. This is the same Nandigram that gave you so much. The people of Nandigram will not forgive you and will give you a befitting reply," the PM added. 

The insider-outsider debate in the West Bengal elections gathered momentum after Banerjee repeatedly highlighted her "daughter of the soil" pitch during a rally in Nandigram. 

She has also asserted that she will not let Bengal be ruled by "outsiders" from Delhi or Gujarat, in a veiled reference to the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The Mamata-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) also launched the 'Bangla Nijer Meyeke Chaye' (Bengal wants its own daughter) campaign, with party leaders calling BJP functionaries visiting the state as "election tourists".

West Bengal elections will be held in eight phases from March 27-April 29 for 294 Assembly seats. The counting of the votes will take place on May 2. 

(With PTI inputs)