Mamata Banerjee to complain to EC, if PM Modi's meditation is televised

Baruipur (WB): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that the Trinamool Congress will complain to the Election Commission if Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meditation in Kanyakumari is televised, alleging that it would amount to violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

PM Modi is scheduled to meditate at Vivekananda Rock Memorial, a monument built in tribute to Swami Vivekananda, in Kanyakumari following the culmination of the Lok Sabha polls campaign on May 30, according to BJP leaders.

"We will complain. He can meditate, but televisions cannot show it," she said, alleging that this will amount to "violation of the MCC." "Does anyone have to get cameras for doing meditation?" she asked, claiming that it was a way of campaigning during the silence period between the end of campaign and the poll date.

According to the BJP leaders, Modi will meditate from the evening of May 30 to the evening of June 1 at Dhyana Mandapam, the place where Vivekananda -- a spiritual icon admired by Modi -- is believed to have had a divine vision about 'Bharat Mata'.

Speaking at an election meeting at the same ground where PM Modi held a campaign meeting on Tuesday in favour of the BJP candidate in Jadavpur constituency, the Trinamool Congress chief claimed that he (Modi) goes for meditation for 48 hours before the final phase polling is to be held in every election.

The prime minister had gone on a similar meditation exercise in a Kedarnath cave after the 2019 poll campaign.

Banerjee accused the BJP dispensation at the Centre of selling off stake in government-owned companies.

"If they (BJP) come back to power this time, there will not be any political party, elections, independence, religion, humanity or culture," she said.

The TMC supremo sought to reject Modi's statement that the BJP will emerge with the best results this election in Bengal, stating, "This means they have lost, they will get rosogolla (zero) in Bengal." Stating that the TMC will give its "support" to the opposition INDIA alliance for forming a government in Delhi, she urged the people not to vote for the CPI(M) or Congress in Bengal.

"That will help the BJP," she said, in the campaign meeting at Baruipur before the seventh phase election to nine Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, which has a total of 42 seats.

"Had I not come out of the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress, then even today we would not have been able to defeat the CPI(M) in Bengal," she said.

Stating that she fought against the CPI(M) for 34 years to throw its government out of Bengal, she said "If we could achieve that, we can also defeat the BJP and we will do it."