Modi targets Mamata, says protectors of chit fund fraudsters

Escalating his face-off with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday accused her of trying to protect those involved in chit fund scams and warned neither the perpetrators nor those shielding them will be spared.

Modi said Banerjee's ruling TMC had inherited the legacy of "violence and atrocity" from the previous Communist government, and had "defamed" the soil of West Bengal.

Attacking Banerjee, who is at the forefront of efforts to stitch together a broad-based anti-BJP coalition of opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Modi said the proposed 'Mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) was 'Maha Milawat' (a grand adulderation) of people who were without any ideology or vision for the country.

"Never in the history of our country have we seen a chief minister sitting on a dharna to save the corrupt. The poor want to know why did you sit on dharna to save those who are accused of negligence in probing the chit fund scam.

"This ...