Mamata accuses BJP of running 'malicious' campaign against TMC

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today accused the BJP of running a malicious campaign against her government.
She made the allegation soon after BJP president Amit Shah attributed the state's alleged poverty and backwardness to what he described as "corrupt policies of Trinamool Congress."
Banerjee said the BJP was circulating wrong information to "demean the performance of her government" only to gain political mileage.
"Compared to other states, West Bengal is far ahead in many sectors, including the agriculture and industry. But wrong statistics are being presented by the top BJP leaders to demean the performance of my government," she said at a programme here.

"If they want to bite us, we shall uproot their teeth. It's not my habit to speak rubbish. I speak less, work more," she said.
The chief minister said that despite inadequate funding by the Centre, the state has made progress in all major sectors with its own resources.

"What Bengal can do, no other state can do it," she said, adding that Bengal was left in a debt trap only because of the "Centre's non-cooperation with my government."
"We are in a debt trap because of the previous Left Front governments. It is not our fault. Despite all this, we are progressing on our own. So don't teach us lessons," she thundered.

Citing more instances of the alleged "non-cooperation" by the Centre, Banerjee said it was the BJP government which had promised to look into the problems of tea gardens in Bengal and Assam and had even assured of opening them all.
"Let them say how many closed tea gardens have been opened," she wanted to know.
Claiming that her party "keeps in touch with the people all 365 days, round-the-clock and doesn't just go to them before the elections, she said "the soil of Bengal is very hard. Don't come to fight with us."
She said the Modi government should first clear the state's financial dues before giving any lesson to her government and indirectly urged the BJP to desist from "winning people's trust and faith by distributing money (among them) and by resorting to a malicious campaign against my government.