Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has blown the poll bugle for the West Bengal assembly elections as he stepped into the campaign for the first time on Wednesday.

Rahul Gandhi landed in Bengal after polling for four phases has been completed and four phases are remaining. Launching a series of stinging attacks on both the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rahul Gandhi made several fierce and aggressive allegations against the two rivals.

At a rally held in Darjeeling, Rahul Gandhi said that the BJP has nothing to give but hatred and violence. He said that the BJP intends to ruin and divide West Bengal and alleged that the saffron party is doing the same thing in Assam and Tamil Nadu.

At a rally in North Dinajpur, the Congress leader said that BJP talks about making Sonar Bangla but it has ruined the entire country. Targeting the ruling TMC, Rahul Gandhi said that West Bengal is the only state where you have to pay ‘Katmani’ (cut money) to get ‘Nakaris’ (jobs).

Referring to the Coronavirus situation in the country, he said, “Last year in February, all Congress leaders and I collectively said to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India is going to be badly affected by COVID. You start preparing to save the economy, migrant labourers and small-scale industry but the media and the government mocked me saying that I’m trying to scare people.

“Narendra Modi said ‘bhaio-bheno’, beat thaali, corona will go. He said ghanti bajaao. After that, he asked people to take out their mobile phones and switch on flashlights. This man is the PM of India. Rather than helping labourers, he asked them to ring bells.

“People of Assam say their history and culture are being attacked. Tamil Nadu and Bengal are facing the same thing. Wherever BJP, RSS go, hatred starts to intensify there.

“BJP set fire to Uttar Pradesh and won elections by spreading hatred and what happened after that? You go to Uttar Pradesh and see, see the situation there, corona came, hospitals are full of corpses, where people are dying from corona

“We are not fighting elections here, we are protecting the history and future of Bengal so I have come here. I have come here not to give a speech but to tell that if Bengal is divided then the people of Bengal will suffer the most.

“Hate and violence, this is all the BJP and RSS have got. They want to divide Bengal, break it down and end the brotherhood that exists between Bengalis. This is what they are doing in Assam and Tamil Nadu and the result will be bad.

“The ideology that the BJP government is trying to spread in Bengal is the same ideology it is spreading in Assam and through AIDMK the same ideology is spreading in Tamil Nadu,” he said.

A few years ago, the Prime Minister announced demonetisation and said that this is a fight against black money. Fight against black money? Millions of people were ruined. Whatever little money that was left in the farmers’ house was gone.

Then he implemented GST. Five different GSTs and 28% tax on small shopkeepers, small and medium businesses, on farmers and to date small shopkeepers have not understood GST, he added.