• Source:PTI
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With just weeks left in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and taunted the party's goal of securing over 400 seats in the general elections. She also challenged the saffron party to win at least 200 constituencies. 

The Bengal CM also asserted that she will not allow the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state and warned that applying for CAA would turn people into foreigners. 

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“The BJP is saying "400 paar", I challenge them to cross the 200 seats benchmark first. In 2021 assembly polls, they gave a call of 200 plus seats but had to stop at 77," Banerjee was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. 

"The CAA is a trap to turn legal citizens into foreigners. We would allow neither CAA nor NRC in West Bengal," she said while addressing a public gathering following her forehead injury earlier this month. 

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The TMC chief also slammed the opposition parties including the CPI(M) and Congress for "joining hands with the BJP" in West Bengal. "There is no INDIA Alliance in West Bengal. "The CPI(M) and Congress are working for the BJP in Bengal," she stated during an election rally in Krishnanagar in support of TMC candidate Mahua Moitra.

"Our MP Mahua Moitra was maligned and expelled from the Lok Sabha as she was vocal against the BJP," she said in a statement.

Polling for the 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases across the country. In the first phase, voting will be held on 102 seats on April 19. The counting of votes will take place on June 4 this year. Following their nomination, candidates have to maintain complete details of their expenses in the elections.