Campaign stops are usually about speeches and slogans. In West Bengal’s Jhargram, they briefly turned into a snack break. Prime Minister Narendra Modi paused between rallies in West Bengal to try jhalmuri, a popular local street food.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi briefly paused between rallies in West Bengal to try jhalmuri, a popular local street food, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unscheduled stop to buy ‘jhalmuri’ during poll campaigning was “drama”.
“It’s all drama. How come a camera was present when the Prime Minister suddenly made an unscheduled stop during the campaign? The entire episode was scripted. He was seen carrying a Rs 10 note in his pocket. Is it believable?” Banerjee said without naming Modi. The TMC supremo was addressing a poll rally in Murarai assembly constituency in Birbhumm district.
The PM spent Sunday addressing four back-to-back rallies across Purulia, Jhargram, Medinipur and Bishnupur. In between, he stopped at a small shop in Jhargram and tried jhalmuri.
“In between four rallies across West Bengal on a packed Sunday, had some delicious Jhalmuri in Jhargram,” he wrote on X, posting images and a short video. In the clip, he is seen asking the shopkeeper to make the snack. When he offered to pay, the vendor initially declined before accepting the money after insistence.
Addressing a poll rally, the Prime Minister accused the TMC of opposing the proposal for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament, calling it a “betrayal of the sisters of Bengal”. “The women of Bengal wanted 33% reservation. Modi ensured this. The women of Bengal wanted it to be implemented from 2029. Modi also made efforts for this. But Trinamool did not want more of Bengal’s daughters to become MLAs and MPs since the daughters were challenging their ‘Maha Jungle Raj’,” he said at a rally in Bankura.
West Bengal will vote in two phases on April 23 and April 29, with counting scheduled for May 4.
