Insult to India's Constitution: PM Modi on Mamata Banerjee's 'do not consider him PM' remark

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday took a jibe at West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamta Banerjee for saying she doesn't consider him as the country's prime minister.

"If you don't consider me as a leader, I can understand. But Prime Minister's post is a constitutional post. You consider Pakistan's prime minister as PM, but India's Prime Minister is not PM for you. This is an insult to the Indian constitution," PM Modi told WION Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary.

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The jibe comes days after Mamata Banerjee said in an election rally that she refused a meeting with Narendra Modi over Cyclone Fani as she does not consider him the country's prime minister.

"I do not consider him the country's prime minister, hence, I did not sit for the meeting. I do not want to be seen with him on the same platform. I will speak to the next prime minister. We can take care of the cyclone damage by ourselves. We do not need the Centre's help ahead of polls," she said in Jhargram on Monday.

At an election rally in West Bengal's Bankura, PM Modi said, "One can easily gauge the level of her anxiety hearing the language she has been using. Now she talks of stones and slaps for me... I am used to abusive language and have inculcated a power to digest all the slangs present in dictionaries around the world. But Didi is now in a frenzied condition. She is even insulting the Constitution of the country."

Modi also accused Banerjee of destroying West Bengal for "the sake of her addiction of power in the state".

"Now, she is further bent on destroying the state out of fear of losing her power. She is not bothered about 'Ma Maati Maanush' but her own benefits, the seat of power and also her relatives, nephew and extortionists," he said.

The Prime Minister also reiterated his earlier accusation that the Trinamool Congress chief neither received nor returned his calls to assess the losses inflicted by Cyclone Fani last week.

The rivalry between BJP and TMC has been the talking point in West Bengal politics with the workers of both party's clashing on several occasions. During his campaign, Modi alleged that the TMC government "made efforts to stop his rally, but failed".