Hoping to defeat BJP on its turf, Mamata raises religious pitch in Asansol

TMC supremo delivers large part of speech in Hindi, to reach out to migrants from Bihar and Jharkhand

Seeking to defeat the Bharatiya Janta Party in its own constituency in Asansol, West Bengal’s chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee chose to attack the BJP primarily on religious grounds, while citing several alleged failures of the Modi government.

Hindi-speaking migrants from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh account for about 50 per cent of the total population in this constituency while in terms of religion, 75.18 per cent of the total voters in Asansol are Hindus. The BJP made inroads into this once Left Front bastion in 2014, winning it for the first time by primarily depending on the