"The BJP is a friend of the CPI-M. It will not be seen anywhere in the state to take up people's causes, but whenever election time comes it suddenly appears and jumps in the fray thus helping the Marxist party to split opposition votes," Banerjee said at an election rally.
Coverage: Assembly Elections 2011
The BJP has a sizeable presence in certain pockets in north Bengal. The Trinamool leader asked voters not to give a single vote to the BJP, which claims itself to be the party for Hindus.
"A single vote for the BJP will mean helping the CPI-M," she said, claiming that in the 2009 Lok Sabha election the BJP helped the Left to win the Cooch Behar seat in north Bengal. "We would have won the seat in 2009 Lok Sabha poll, but we could not do so as the BJP helped the CPI-M to win it," she added.
In the 2009, the Lok Sabha poll, the Left Front candidate won the Cooch Behar seat by 33,749 votes. While Left Front candidate polled 5,00,677 votes, the Trinamool Congress nominee got 4,66,928 votes and the BJP contestant secured 65,325 votes.
The BJP also played a spoilsport to the Congress and Trinamool alliance in Alipurduar and Jalpaiguri seats in 2009 by garnering substantial votes. The seats were won by the Left Front. Banerjee also came down heavily on Congress rebels, including some sitting legislators, who had filed nominations against Trinamool nominees in some north Bengal districts including North Dinajpur and Malda.
"The CPM has fielded some Congress rebels in the name of independents against our party nominees and they have also left some seats to the BJP. They do not want the change to take place in West Bengal," she said. Banerjee appealed to voters not to give a single vote to them, saying, "If change does not come this time, it will never come."
Asserting that she had sanctioned a string of railway projects and improved rail connectivity in north Bengal which had been neglected by the Left Front government, Banerjee said if her party was voted to power she would bring about rapid development by setting up factories to create employment for youth.
"North Bengal is totally neglected in terms of development and employment generation as no factory came up in the past 35 years," she said.
The BJP did not have a single member of Legislative Assembly in the outgoing Assembly.
