Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trinamool Congress President and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that a day will come when the country will be named after him

"The prime minister has named a stadium after him. He has put his photographs on COVID-19 vaccination certificates. He has turned the COVID vaccine to Modi vaccine. A day will come when the country will be named after him," she said.

Addressing a rally in Kolkata, Banerjee said that she will return to power in Bengal.

"The fight is between me and the BJP in all 294 seats. They have the machinery, the money, the goons, and I do not have anything. What I have is the support of 100 per cent of the people of the state," she said.

The chief minister described Modi's rally held at Brigade Parade Ground on Sunday as "B-grade". "Yesterday, they held a rally in Brigade. It was actually a B-grade rally. You cannot have everything with money. The number of people we have in our rally today, there was not even half of that yesterday (in the BJP's rally)," she said.

In another development, a total of five TMC MLAs, including Sital Kumar Sardar, joined BJP today.

Four-time MLAs Sonali Guha, 80-year-old Rabindranath Bhattacharya joined the saffron party after they were denied the poll ticket. Another four-time legislator, 85-year-old Jatu Lahiri, and former footballer Dipendu Biswas also switched sides

A number of TMC leaders have quit the party in recent months to join the BJP as the saffron party mounts an aggressive all-out campaign to end Chief Minister Banerjee's 10-year-old reign in the state.

Assembly elections in the state will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29.

(With inputs from PTI)

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)

First Published:Mar 8, 2021 9:37 PM IST