Bengal's progress stalled, crime and corruption have become TMC's identity: PM Modi

PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited West Bengal on Friday, said that the state's progress has long been stalled and that crime and corruption have become the identity of the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

"The biggest challenge to Bengal's development is that most central funds are looted, and spent on TMC cadre," the Prime Minister said.

He further said that Assam and Tripura witnessed central funds' misuse like West Bengal but now these states are progressing under the BJP rule.

PM Modi, who was in the state to inaugurate several projects, said that Bengal needs change to ensure development, women's security, and jailing of the corrupt. He added that the TMC is an enemy of Bengal's development, as the party's only objective is to stop the BJP's roadmap for growth.

Further, the PM said that the BJP strengthened Bengali by granting it classical language status.

Meanwhile, BJP tore into the Trinamool Congress after TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she was feeling "nostalgic" over the new metro routes in Kolkata.

Allow me to be a little nostalgic today. As the Railways Minister of India, I was fortunate in planning and sanctioning series of Metro Railway corridors in metropolitan Kolkata. I had drawn the blueprints, arranged the funds, initiated the works and ensured that the different ends of the city ( Joka, Garia, Airport, Sector V, etc) were connected by an intra- city Metro grid," Banerjee said in a post on X.

However, this did not seem to go very well with BJP's Suvendu Adhikari, who said that Banerjee's "nostalgia" was just a way for her to steal credit.

"Your “nostalgia" is nothing but a desperate attempt to steal credit for projects that languished under your watch. As Railways Minister in the corrupt UPA era, you may have got some blueprints sketched, but they collected dust for years due to the UPA Government’s infamous delays, and the non cooperation of the WB Govt since you became Chief Minister. Land acquisition failures, and outright non-cooperation by your Administration have plagued the timely execution of these projects," Adhikari wrote on X.