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On battleground Twitter, BJP, TMC target each other with old videos
BJP top guns including Kailash Vijayvargiya, Amit Malviya and the party’s Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh have been unsparing in the attack on Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday got into a tussle over the latter using the Bengali word bhaipo (nephew). But the TMC leader who took the first jab at the saffron camp was hit by video clips showing him making statements against chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Addressing a media conference on Sunday, Kunal Ghosh, one of the spokespersons of the TMC, dared BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya to reveal on record who he means while frequently mentioning the word bhaipo in public. Vijayvargiya, while addressing a rally in East Midnapore district on Saturday said “no person with self-esteem can stay in the TMC because the party’s reins have gone to bhaipo.” Vijayvargiya, an election observer for West Bengal, used the word several times in the past.
Although Vijayvargiya did not take any name, it was apparent that he was referring to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Lok Sabha member Abhishek Banerjee. In fact many senior BJP leaders, such as Amit Malviya, head of the party’s national information technology cell and co-incharge of the organization in Bengal, frequently use the Bengal word pishi (aunt) as well.
“I dare you (Vijayvargiya). If you have the courage, name the person. Who is bhaipo?” said Ghosh and made a counterattack on former TMC leader and the BJP’s national vice-president Mukul Roy who is one of the accused in the Narada sting operation case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Malviya and the Bengal unit of the BJP targeted Ghosh by tweeting videos of the statements he made against the chief minister when he was in judicial custody for two years as an accused in the Saradha chit fund scam.
“The name of the person who got the most direct and indirect benefit of Saradha Media is Mamata Banerjee,” Ghosh can be heard saying to mediapersons in a video clip once aired by a popular news channel. Saradha Media was floated by the chit fund company’s owner, Sudipta Sen, who is still in judicial custody.
“Kunal Ghosh, scam tainted spokesperson of TMC, who was fielded to defend ‘Bhaipo’ had this to say in Sept 2014, “If there is anyone who has directly or indirectly benefited the most from Saradha Media, that person is Mamata Banerjee“. Pishi can clarify if the allegation is true,” tweeted Malviya.
In its tweet, the Bengal BJP said, “In the next @AITCofficial press conference, @KunalGhoshAgain should reiterate his public stand on the Saradha scam. Or maybe explain what he thinks of ‘the greatest Saradha beneficiary’ or why he himself had to go to jail in the first place. Leave Bhaipo, save Pishi instead..”
Ghosh responded to these tweets by tweeting old videos of Mukul Roy where he made statements against top BJP leaders at TMC rallies.
Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said, “When someone utters the words didi (elder sister) and bhaipo, the entire Bengal understands who are being referred to.”
