West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), saying that even a “poisonous snake” can be trusted, but not the ruling party. According to Banerjee, the BJP only follows one principle – “one nation, one party”.

“The BJP is asking you to enrol names for Awas Yojna again. Why will the names be enrolled again? They want further enrolment so that they can chuck it off. You can trust a poisonous snake, you can even pet it…but you can never trust the BJP…The BJP is destroying the country,” Banerjee said while addressing a rally in Bengal’s Cooch Behar.

The CM also alleged that the central investigating agencies, the Border Security Force (BSF) and Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) are “working at the behest of BJP”. “We will humbly plead to the Election Commission to ensure a level playing field as central agencies are working for the saffron camp. The BJP is violating the MCC,” she said, as quoted by news agency PTI.

Banerjee continued her attack on the ruling party and slammed it for nominating former Cooch Behar SP Debashis Dhar as its candidate from Birhum, asserting that Dhar was responsible for killing five people during the 2021 assembly polls.

Modi vs Mamata in Cooch Behar

The Cooch Behar district on Thursday witnessed a back-to-back Lok Sabha campaign battle between Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After Mamata’s dig at the saffron party, PM Modi said, “I first want to thank West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee because, in 2019, I was here to address a rally on the same ground, she installed a big stage in the middle of this ground to reduce the space (for the rally), so that people could not listen to Modi. Back then I had told her – ‘Didi, you didn’t do the right thing. People will give an answer to this.’…And you gave a reply. But today, she didn’t do any such thing.”

He added, “This is an election to form a strong and stable government in the country…Modi has taken tough decisions to ensure the country is free of corruption and terrorism,” he added.

Notably, the BJP has had a stronghold as it made maximum electoral gains since the 2019 elections in the Cooch Behar region.

(With inputs from agencies)