With 'Jai Shri Ram' Taunt, PM Modi 'Welcomes' Mamata Banerjee To Varanasi

Even at a rally in North 24 Parganas today, Mamata Banerjee took a swipe over the "outsider" tag that her party has pinned on the BJP

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today used his Lok Sabha constituency, Varanasi, to make the Trinamool Congress's "outsider" comment at BJP ricochet back to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's party. One of the Trinamool's main weapons deployed in the West Bengal campaign was to identify the BJP as a party alien to the state. Ms Banerjee in her attacks on PM Modi has often warned that the BJP would "destroy the culture of Bengal". The Trinamool had also said Ms Banerjee would contest the next general election from Varanasi, in reply to PM Modi asking whether she would fight from another seat, apart from Nandigram, due to "insecurity" in the Bengal election. Even at a rally in North 24 Parganas today, Ms Banerjee took a swipe over the "outsider" tag that her party has pinned on the BJP. "BJP wants to divide Bengal... These people want to end Bengal, its language, its culture," Ms Banerjee, on a wheelchair nursing her plastered leg, said. "I request to all the minority brothers and sisters not to allow their vote division," she said. At another rally some 60 km from where Ms Banerjee was addressing a rally, PM Modi responded, "Didi is now looking for a place outside. Welcome to Varanasi. There is a ship that goes from Haldia to Varanasi. One more thing, the people of my Benaras, they are so large hearted they won't call you a tourist or outsider. They are as large hearted as the people of Bengal," the Prime Minister said.