West Bengal: PM Modi and Mamata Banerjee lock horns on 'insider vs outsider' debate

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a poll rally on Wednesday recited the lines 'Punjab, Sindh,Gujarat, Maratha, Dravida, Utkala, Banga’ from the national anthem to convey to TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee that no Indian is an "outsider" in Bengal.

Seeking to counter the TMC campaign that the BJP is a party of "outsiders", PM Modi said these lines by Rabindranath Tagore showed that " everyone residing here areIndians and that no one is an outsider."

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee promptly retorted that those "who come from other states and try to create trouble in Bengal before elections" are the outsiders.


"Hitting out against whom she termed “paan chewing” and “gutka spitting” men, she said, " They sport a tilak and come from states like Uttar Pradesh to foment trouble in West Bengal. They can hardly speak Bengali and have an artificial accent.”

Banerjee, who addressed three poll rallies today, called Tagore the pride ofBengal, and added that BJP leaders were trying to ruin the glory of the land.

PM Modi at a public meeting at Contai, repeated that if the the BJP wins a "son of the soil will become the chief minister of Bengal ."