Won’t allow Bengal to become Gujarat: Mamata Banerjee

Hitting back at BJP over its 'development' remarks, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she will not allow her state to be turned into Gujarat. Besides, Banerjee once again referred to BJP as 'outsiders' and said that 'no division' will be allowed in West Bengal.

"The soil of Bengal is the source of life. We have to protect this soil. We have to take pride in this. There is no one who can come from outside and say this place will be turned into Gujarat," she said at an event in Kolkata.

"Our message is that we are for all... Humanity is for all whether he is a Sikh, Jain, Muslim or a Christian. We don't allow any division among them", she said.

Mamata has been issuing strong remarks against the Centre ever since Union Home Minister Amit Shah, during his two-day Bengal visit, criticised the Trinamool government severely over various issues. Amit Shah had said that Bengal, under the Mamata regime, has failed to deliver on several fronts.

She put out data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to claim that the crime graph of Bengal has dipped in the last decade. Mamata highlighted that Kolkata has been accorded the 'safest city' tag twice.

Earlier, Home Minister Amit Shah attacked the West Bengal government said that the Gujarat model of development will be implemented in West Bengal if BJP returned to power in the eastern state.

Shah had also slammed Banerjee for her references to BJP as 'the party of outsiders' and said that the next chief minister of West Bengal will be a son-of-the-soil.

"I think Mamata di has forgotten a few things. When Mamata di was in Congress, did she call Indira Gandhi an outsider? Did she use the term for then Prime Minister P V Narashima Rao or Pranab Da?" Shah had asked.

Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee spoke to farmers protesting in Delhi against the Centre's new agriculture laws and assured them that her party stands by them.

Thousands of agriculturists, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting against the Centre's reform measures for over four weeks at various border points of Delhi and demanding that the laws be repealed.