Siliguri, Mar 9 (IANS): Even as North Bengal, including the hills, remains neglected, the ruling Trinamool Congress leaders are busy forcefully grabbing land from the poor, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Saturday.

Addressing a public rally at Siliguri in Darjeeling district of North Bengal, the Prime Minister accused the Trinamool leaders of utilising Central funds provided under the Centrally-sponsored schemes to fill their pockets.

“A member of the state Cabinet is currently in jail because of his involvement in the ration distribution scam. The funds sent under the MGNREGA scheme were siphoned off by the state government, depriving the genuine beneficiaries. Over 25 lakhs of fake job cards were created for that purpose. The money sent under the Central housing scheme was allotted to a few confidants of the ruling party,” the Prime Minister said.

According to PM Modi, the recent developments at Sandeshkhali have exposed the deplorable condition of women in the state under the Trinamool rule.

“What the women coming from poor, backward, and tribal backgrounds in Sandeshkhali have been facing for long is a matter of national discussion now,” the Prime Minister said.

He also accused the Left parties of playing a balancing act by joining forces with the Congress and Trinamool Congress, whose only aim is to continue with the long practice of ancestral and dynasty politics.

“While the Trinamool leadership only thinks of its ‘nephew’, the Congress’ only concern is its ‘royal family’. The Left parties are now playing a balancing game with them. None of these parties think of the common people,” the Prime Minister said.

PM Modi also said that the BJP should emerge victorious in all the Lok Sabha constituencies in North Bengal.

In 2019, the BJP won seven out of eight Lok Sabha seats in North Bengal, while the Congress bagged the eighth seat. In all, the BJD had secured 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in 2019.