Bharatiya Janata Party leader Suvendu Adhikari said on Tuesday that he is no “Mir Jafar” (traitor) and had it not been for the BJP the Trinamool Congress would not have survived even a few years after its formation in 1998.
“I am being called a traitor a ‘Mir Jafar,’ but I want to ask them, after it was formed in 1998, who was with TMC in several elections, including the 1999 Lok Sabha polls?… Had it not been for former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani, the party [Trinamool Congress] would have ceased to exist and not been able to contest the 2001 Assembly polls,” Mr Adhikari said addressing a gathering at Purboshtali in Bardhaman.
Sharing the stage with Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, Mr. Adhikari recalled a number of instances when BJP leaders stood by the Trinamool Congress, including Singur and Nandigram movements. Not only did the BJP leadership come to Nandigram after 14 farmers were killed in police firing in March 2007, but they ensured that the issue was raised in Parliament as well.
“Tell me, who was the one who offered you fruit juice at Singur movement? His name is Rajnath Singh,” Mr Adhikari said, referring the presence of BJP leaders during Mamata Banerjee’s 26-day hunger strike at Singur.
“The Trinamool Congress has turned into a company,” he said.
Mr. Adhikari joined the BJP on December 19 after months of speculation. This was his second public rally as a BJP leader.
“Anyone with self-respect cannot work in the Trinamool Congress,” he said. Mr. Adhikari called for “paribartan er paribartan” (change of change) in Bengal and said that he would work tirelessly to dislodge the TMC from power in the State in the 2021 Assembly polls.
Paribaratan was the slogan adopted by the Trinamool in 2011 when the party was able to dislodge the Left Front regime that was in power for 34 years.
