NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday hit back at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the "insider-outsider" debate and asserted that the next chief minister of the state will be a "son of the soil" from the BJP.
In a firm response to the "outsider" debate fueled by the TMC, Shah said the BJP has enough local faces to take on the ruling party and nobody has to come from Delhi to defeat Mamata.
"I think Mamata di has forgotten a few things. When Mamata di was in Congress, did she call Indira Gandhi an outsider? Did she use the term for then Prime Minister P V Narashima Rao or Pranab Da?" asked Shah.
The TMC has been denouncing BJP as a party of outsiders ahead of next year's assembly polls. It has also attacked the saffron party for deploying central ministers and leaders from different states for political campaigning.
Pointing to several state BJP leaders sharing the stage with him, Shah asserted that his party has enough firepower to take the fight to the ruling TMC.
"I want to tell the people of Bengal, this is an attempt to create an illusion. Mamata didi, nobody has to come from Delhi to defeat you. A leader from Bengal will contest against you and the next chief minister will be son of the soil if BJP is voted to power," Shah said.
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Shah further accused Mamata of promoting "conservative thinking" by stoking the outsider debate.
"Does Mamata didi want a country where people from one state can't go to the other? Didi, people of Bengal won't accept such conservative thinking," Shah said.
He also attacked the Mamata Banerjee government over Bangladeshi infiltration.
"The TMC can never stop infiltration as it believes in appeasement politics. Only BJP can stop it... Mamata Banerjee supports farmers protest but doesn't allow cultivators of Bengal to get the benefits of central schemes. Is this the way to honour the federal structure?" he said.
Strongly condemning the recent attack on BJP president J P Nadda's convoy, Shah said that Banerjee has failed to control the law and order situation in the state.
He also asserted the Centre had the right to summon state IPS officers responsible for providing him security for central deputation.
"The Centre is well within its rights to send a letter (summoning IPS officers for central deputation) to state government ... if they have any doubt they can go through the rule book," Shah said.
(With inputs from PTI)