Kolkata:
Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday termed the attack on BJP national president J P Nadda’s convoy in West Bengal as an outburst of people’s anger, while claiming that the saffron party has not stood by the people of the state during hardships faced by them. Nadda’s convoy was pelted with stones by alleged TMC workers at Sirakol in Banerjee’s constituency in South 24 Parganas district when the BJP leader was travelling to Diamond Harbour town to address a rally there.
”Nadda was in trouble today in Diamond harbour. What can I do about it? Outburst of people’s anger is not my responsibility. Despite the hardships faced by people owing to lockdown, GST or the note ban, the BJP did not stand by the people,” the TMC youth wing chief told a rally at Arambag in Hooghly district. Asserting that the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC will return to power in the state with a huge majority, he said that as in earlier elections, slander campaigns against the party will not succeed in the Assembly poll in the state due in April-May 2021.
He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lifestyle has changed in the last 10 years but it was not the case with the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. ”Narendra Modi used to ride a Rs 10 lakh car 10 years ago and now the vehicle he uses is worth Rs 5 crore. Mamata Banerjee used to travel and still travels in a Rs 3 lakh car.
She still lives in a tiled-roof house,” he said. Claiming that the BJP had tried to discredit the TMC over Narada sting tapes and the Saradha chit fund scam before the Assembly elections in 2016, he said that the result was that the party came back with a higher number of seats than in 2011.
On Nadda’s assertion that the BJP will win 200-plus seats in the coming Assembly elections, Banerjee said the party will not be able to do it. The TMC MP said that the battle of election will be fought over development issues and not through clashes and violence.
”I urge the BJP to say what your Modi has done in seven years and what didi (Mamata Banerjee) has done in 10 years,” he said, waving a report card that the TMC released on Thursday on the achievements of her government. ”I challenge the BJP to come out with a report card on Modi’s achievements and if we can’t defeat them with a margin of 10-0 goals, I will not be in politics anymore,” he said.
The chief minister’s nephew claimed that the BJP leaders do not dare to take his name while making allegations against him. ”They regularly say about bhaipo (nephew), but cannot take my name. I had taken their names at my meeting at Diamond Harbour 11 days back on November 29. But they could not take my name anywhere since then,” he said.
Banerjee alleged that the BJP always indulges in politics of religion and ”false patriotism”. Every inch of the country’s land should be defended from foreign aggression, he said.
”Surgical strike was carried out at Balakot in Pakistan. But today, China has grabbed the country’s land at Galwan Valley in Ladakh” but the Modi government is not doing anything about it, he claimed. After having lunch at poor people’s houses for publicity, BJP leaders enjoy a sumptuous dinner at five-star hotels, he alleged.
While the BJP forced the public to stand in queues over demonetisation, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), people of West Bengal are lining up with love to register for the TMC government’s ”Duare Sarkar” (government at the doorsteps) programme, he said. The TMC leader said that 50 lakh people have already registered for the programme.
