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Women in West Bengal are outraged and the storm that started in Sandeshkhali will not remain restricted to the island but reach every corner of West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today.

Firing barbs at the Mamata Banerjee government over what has emerged as the biggest talking point in Bengal politics, the Prime Minister said the Bengal government is using all its might to save a “culprit” – an apparent reference to Sandeshkhali strongman Sheikh Shahjahan.

Switching to Bengali, the Prime Minister gave the BJP’s war cry, “Ei baar, 400 paar, NDA sarkar, 400 paar” at a rally of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha in Barasat, in the same district as Sandeshkhali.

Ahead of the Barasat event, the Prime Minister opened several new routes of Kolkata Metro and also took a ride in it while interacting with several schoolgoers.

The Prime Minister said modernising public transport is a priority for his government. Several generations, he said, have grown up looking at Kolkata Metro. “When I first came to Kolkata as a child, seeing the Metro was an attraction. But today, the Kolkata Metro is also a witness to the fast pace at which the BJP government works. In the 40 years before 2014, the Kolkata Metro route expanded to 28 km. But in the past 10 years, 31 km of Metro route have been added. The BJP government has worked very honestly for the development of Bengal and the country,” he said.

Leaders of the Opposition’s INDIA alliance, of which the Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is part, are scared now as the BJP is set to return to power, the Prime Minister said. “They are losing their sleep and their balance, so they have started abusing Modi,” he added.

“Leaders of the INDIA alliance are now saying that I talk against dynastic politics because I have no family. They want to know where my family is. These dynasts see should come here. This is Modi ka parivar,” he said, doubling down on the BJP’s campaign to counter RJD patriarch Lalu Yadav’s “Modi has no family” jab.

Pointing at the women in the crowd, he said the mothers, sisters and daughters shield him from every difficulty. “For me, the mothers and sisters of Bengal rise like Goddess Durga,” the Prime Minister said. 

The Prime Minister said he left home at a young age and wandered across the country. “I did not have a dime in my pocket. But you would be proud to know that one or the other family would ask me if I have eaten. I roamed around with a jhola, but I never spent a day hungry. That’s why I say 140 crore people of this country are my family,” he said, adding, “I am now trying to repay for those favours.”