West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lashed out at the Election Commission’s special observers for the state on Sunday, accusing them of abusing and insulting the people of the state, PTI reported. Special poll observer Ajay V Nayak had claimed that the election scenario in West Bengal was similar to the situation in Bihar over 15 years ago.

He had also said that central forces need to be deployed in every booth in the state “as the people have lost faith in the state police”. On Saturday, the Trinamool Congress complained against Nayak, who is a former chief electoral officer of Bihar.

“The BJP is trying to run a parallel government in the state,” she alleged. “Two retired officers have been sent to run the government, this is unconstitutional. They are trying to help the BJP.”

Banerjee, who addressed two rallies in Nadia district, pointed out that her party had won a resounding victory in the 2016 Assembly elections even though central forces had been deployed at every booth.

The Trinamool Congress chief said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Mann ki Baat” radio addresses were full of falsehoods, and accused him of speaking the language of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. “The prime minister’s position has a stature, I have never seen a person stoop so low,” she added.

She claimed that lakhs of migrant labourers had lost their jobs because of the government’s decision to demonetise high-value currencies in 2016. “You had done notebandi, people will do votebandi,” Banerjee told the BJP and the prime minister. She alleged that labourers from the state were killed and subjected to violence in Rajasthan, when it was ruled by the BJP. As a result the labourers had returned to the state en masse out of fear of persecution.

The West Bengal chief minister accused the Modi government of depriving the state in the last five years. “Every day, he is resorting to lies,” Banerjee alleged. “They [BJP leaders] are seasonal birds, who come during elections only and vanish after the polls.”