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West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday said he was surprised by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's statement about the state government's "overall failure".
"I am surprised at what the Prime Minister said on Saturday. I don't know when he discovered that the state government was not working," Bhattacharjee said at a 'Meet- the-Press' programme in Kolkata and observed that the government's performance would be only judged by the people.
The prime minister, he said, had never complained to him about his government's alleged non-performance during his meetings in Delhi.
Rather, Singh was always eager to know about the progress in land distribution, new industries in the state and the proposed investment in the state by Japan, he said.
"The Prime Minister had come to the state to campaign for the Assembly elections. He had to follow his party's line," Bhattacharjee said.
The chief minister said he was also surprised by Singh's another comment that Muslims in West Bengal were worse off than those in Gujarat.
"I did not expect such comments from Singh. Muslims in our state live in peace and harmony; whereas those in Gujarat live in a state of uncertainty. Besides, Muslims in our state get scholarships and business loans. No state gives the kind of loans that the Muslims get from the West Bengal Minority Development Corporation," he claimed.