Oppn unity short-lived: BJP

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 21 

The BJP today fiercely hit out at Mamata Banerjee, who recently organised an “anti-BJP or Modi” event in her state for allegedly scuttling a rally of party chief Amit Shah while dismissing as “negative”, “unviable”, “unworkable” and “short-lived” the very concept of a “mahagathbandhan”. 

“Will 2019 be a replica of 1971? It is Modi versus an unviable and an unworkable short-lived combination. Or is it Modi versus chaos,” Jaitley wondered in his social media post, clearly underlining the thought that the BJP has been building on lately to take on the Opposition —that there is no alternative to Modi. 

“Unhappy people vote a government out. When there is a comfort level with the government and its leader, a set of more satisfied people vote a government back,” Jaitley said also proclaiming Mamata’s “anti-Modi rally” “more significantly a non-Rahul Gandhi rally”.

Interestingly, though the BJP, which has planned several rallies of Shah and Prime Minister Modi in the Trinamool Congress’ backyard West Bengal, claimed that the state government run by the party had denied permission for the landing of a helicopter carrying Shah at an airstrip in Malda on Tuesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed otherwise, terming the BJP allegation “absolutely not true”. 

However, launching a fierce attack against her, union minister Piyush Goyal said “Mamata Banerjee is scared of the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ground the BJP is gaining. This is the reason she is leaving no stone unturned to stop BJP (from holding) events in the state”. Both Shah and the Prime Minister are scheduled to address public meetings in the state over the coming weeks 

BJP leaders ranging from Union Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar to Prime Minister Modi have condemned the Opposition’s efforts to build up an “anti-Modi” alliance, calling it “opportunistic”.