Bengal turned into old age home by Congress, Left, TMC: Modi

Kolkata: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed that the east Indian state of West Bengal, specially Kolkata, had been reduced to an old age home by successive state governments formed by Congress, Left Front and Trinamool Congress, with the youths leaving for other states in search of jobs.
"It feels that whether it is Congress or Left or Didi (TMC), they have all turned West Bengal into an old age home," Modi said at an election rally here.
"Youths are going to other states to earn a living. Does any youth want to leave his or her old parents, their own place where they grew up amid fresh air and greenery?" he questioned.
"But today youths of Bengal have to leave for some large city outside the state and take shelter in shanties and slums to earn and feed their parents owing to lack of job opportunities here," Modi said at the Shahid Minar ground in the heart of the city.
"There was a time when people of the whole country wanted to come to Kolkata and spend some time of their lives here and felt proud of it, but today there is a sea change," he said adding it was just the opposite trend prevailing now.
"Youths from here now go to Bangalore, Mumbai, Jaipur or Ahmedabad in search of jobs. Young people from the east are going to the west," the prime minister said questioning why the people of eastern states were suffering while the western counterparts were developing. "Whether it is Odisha, Bihar, Assam, Bengal or the North-Eastern states, the story is the same everywhere," he lamented, while claiming that the ruling parties were responsible for lack of development in these states.
"However big and mighty the body may be, if one arm is weak, the body cannot be said to be healthy," Modi said, adding it was his dream to make this part equally strong as the rest of the country.
Observing that the Assembly election is about the future of the youth of Bengal, Modi said that in the 70 years since Independence, the state has seen governments of the Congress, Left Front and the TMC. He urged the people of the state to give BJP a chance to govern the state so as to "usher in large scale development" in line with other BJP-ruled states in the country.