Kolkata: A day after she called PM Narendra Modi and his party BJP the ''biggest threats'' to the nation, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday dared the Prime Minister to prove his allegations of links between the Trinamool Congress and the coal mafia.
Throwing an open challenge to the PM, the TMC chief said that if he fails to prove his allegations, then he should do a hundred sit-ups before the public for making false allegations against her party.
She even said that if the charges made by the PM are proved, then she will withdraw all 42 Lok Sabha candidates of her party.
''I challenge you (PM Modi) if you can prove your allegations that one of us is part of coal mafia. I will withdraw all my 42 candidates. If you are lying, you have to hold your ears and do a hundred sit-ups before the public,'' the TMC supremo said this while addressing an election rally in Bankura, West Bengal.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee in Bankura: I challenge you (PM Modi) if you can prove your allegations that one of us is part of coal mafia, I will withdraw all my 42 candidates. If you are lying, you have to hold your ears and do a hundred sit ups before public. pic.twitter.com/mBQT59MP4J
— ANI (@ANI) May 9, 2019
The firebrand West Bengal leader had on Wednesday urged the voters to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power and described him and his Bharatiya Janata Party as the "biggest threat" to the country.
"Narendra Modi and BJP are the biggest threat to the nation," Banerjee had said in West Midnapore District's Debra while addressing a public rally there.
The Trinamool supremo alleged that the Modi regime did not give due respect to Bengal and was also trying to divide people in the name of religion.
"If Narendra Modi is not removed, there will be no freedom, democracy, no religion or no caste in the country as they will change the Constitution," she said.
After courting controversy, the West Bengal Chief Minister on Thursday denied having said that she will slap Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asserted she had said he would get the "tight slap of democracy".
PM Modi had told a rally at Bankura earlier in the day that Banerjee had said that she would slap him, which would actually be a ''blessing'' for him.
Speaking at a rally at Simulia in Purulia district ahead of the sixth phase of polls, Banerjee elaborated that by "slap of democracy" she meant the peoples' mandate expressed through their votes.
"He (Modi) is saying that I have said I will slap him. Arrey that's the slap of democracy. Try to understand the language," Banerjee said.
"Why should I be slapping you (the PM). I am not that kind of a person. What I understand is democracy. A slap of democracy means that the mandate people will give by casting their votes," the Trinamool Congress supremo said.
Banerjee had said during a campaign rally at Raghunathpur in the district on Tuesday that Modi should get a "tight slap of democracy".
(With Agency inputs)
