Mamata Banerjee, Suvendu Adhikari face off at back-to-back mega rallies
Suvendu Adhikari’s father and brother, who are TMC Lok Sabha members, may soon join the BJP .
Political heat in West Bengal soared on a cold December day on Tuesday when Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee and her follower-turned -challenger Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP’s newest heavyweight entrant in the poll-bound state, held back-to-back rallies in three districts where lakhs millions turned up.
Adhikari addressed a Bajrang Dal rally at Nandigram in East Midnapore district, his home turf, in the morning and a second one at Barrackpore in North 24 Parganas district, 150 km away, in the evening. He unleashed a scathing attack on the chief minister and her nephew and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee and called for their ouster in the interest of Bengal.
In a significant move, Adhikari declared at the second rally that members of his family will soon join the BJP and said he will make the lotus (the BJP’s symbol) bloom in the Banerjee family as well.
“You (Abhishek) asked at a recent rally whether I feel ashamed to live in a house where the other members are still with the ruling party. Bhaipo (nephew) let me tell you that the lotus will bloom in my home. Wait for Ram Navami and Basanti Puja. And, I will enter your home too. The lotus will bloom in your home. Mark my words,” said Adhikari.
Amid loud applause, Adhikari spoke in Hindi and referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s famous quote on hitting Pakistan inside its territory after the Pulwama terror attack. “Ghar main ghus ke maar diya,” he said.
Adhikari’s father Sisir Adhikari and brother Dibyendu are the TMC’s Lok Sabha members from Kanthi and Tamluk constituencies respectively. Both of them refused to comment on Adhikari’s remark. The family’s youngest son, Soumendu, who headed the Kanthi municipality, was removed from the post by the government on Tuesday evening.
In between the two BJP rallies, Mamata Banerjee led a grand roadshow and addressed a rally in Birbhum district’s Bolpur town, where Union minister Amit Shah led a roadshow on December 20, a day after welcoming Adhikari into the BJP.
Reiterating that the BJP is a party of “outsiders,” she alleged that Visva-Bharati, Bengal’s only Central university that Rabindranath Tagore had set up in Bolpur, has turned into a centre of dirty politics.
The Prime Minister is the de-facto chancellor of Visva-Bharati and he virtually addressed the institution’s centenary celebration programme last week. Shah also visited Visva-Bharati on December 20 and spent time in the rooms used by Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi, who was a visitor.
Visva-Bharati has been in the news for several months over vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty’s attempts to set up a security zone around the open-air campus. The authorities hit the headlines last week for accusing Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen of illegally occupying some land. Banerjee has extended her support to Sen, saying he has become a target for speaking against the BJP.
Sen’s maternal grandfather, educationist and writer Acharya Kshitimohan Sen, was a follower of Tagore and taught at the university since its inception in 1921.
“Visva-Bharati has become the centre of dirty politics over blind religious faith. The dirty politics has been imported. Those who are importing this hatred do not know the Hindu religion,” said Banerjee.
“The vice-chancellor is a marked stooge of the BJP. Didn’t they (the Centre) find any other person for the post? Why are BJP leaders visiting Visva-Bharati so frequently? What business do they have on campus? I do not do politics on Calcutta University campus,” said Banerjee. Her statement came amid reports that BJP national president J P Nadda may visit Bengal on January 9 and visit Bolpur.
Without naming Adhikari, the chief minister alleged that the seven TMC legislators who joined the BJP on December 19, were purchased. “You can spend money and buy a few legislators but you cannot purchase Bengal. Win 30 seats if you can. TMC will fight till the end and win the election,” said Banerjee, indirectly hitting out at Shah who has declared that his party will win more than 200 of the state’s 294 assembly seats in the polls due in about five months.
In a bid to strike a chord with the masses, Banerjee drew a connection between the 2021 elections and the martyrs’ day the TMC observes on February 21. “Ekush (21 in Bangla) will show the way. Ekush will liberate Bengal,” she said.
In a veiled reference to Modi, who has grown his beard and hair, Mamata Banerjee tried to mock the Prime Minister at the olpur rally. “One or two of the leaders coming to Bengal are looking like Rabindranath Tagore,” she said.
At Adhikari’s morning rally, Banerjee drew flak for cancelling her scheduled rally at Nandigram on January 7.
Nandigram, where a three-year-long violent struggle against acquisition of farm land for industry played a key role in helping Banerjee oust the Left Front government in 2011, was the assembly constituency of former minister Adhikari till he resigned from the state assembly.
“Those who talked of holding a rally in Nandigram have suddenly vanished. But I keep my word. I will hold a rally on January 8 and there will be more than one lakh people,” Adhikari said.
The reason TMC leaders cited on Monday for cancelling Banerjee’s January 7 rally was that Akhil Giri, the legislator from the district’s Ramnagar constituency and the event’s organiser, had tested positive for Covid-19.
Reacting to Adhikari’s statement that his family will join the BJP, Saugata Roy, TMC Lok Sabha member, said, “It will not make any difference to the TMC. We successfully held a rally in Kanthi, their hometown, last week without anyone from the Adhikari family.”
The BJP rally at Barrackpore was attended the local Lok Sabha member Arjun Singh, BJP’s youth front president and Lok Sabha member Saumitra Khan and Union minister of state Babul Supriyo.
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