HOWRAH: All six Trinamool Congress defectors, including three heavyweights from Howrah, showed up at the BJP rally in Howrah on Sunday, prompting Union home minister Amit Shah to say in his virtual address that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee would be left alone by the time polls were held in West Bengal.
“So many members from TMC have joined BJP in the last three months. Mamata ji should introspect why this is happening. By the time polls are held, you (Banerjee) will be left alone,” he said, highlighting the continuing desertions from Trinamool — the first rush to BJP led by Suvendu Adhikari and the second by Rajib Banerjee.
Shah said the TMC government in the last 10 years had taken Bengal further down the slide from where Communists had left off. “Mamata gave the ‘Ma Mati Manush’ slogan 10 years ago to bring about ‘poribartan’ from the Communist rule. Turning back to this 10-year rule, the ‘Ma Mati Manush’ slogan gave in to tanashahi (autocracy), tolabazi (cut money) and tushtikaran (appeasement). Mamata ji, people of Bengal won’t forgive you,” he said. Without taking names, he said: “The only agenda of TMC has been to make the bhatija (nephew) the CM.” In support of his claim, Shah pointed out how TMC government blocked the Centre’s welfare schemes like Ayushman Bharat and PM Jan Dhan Yojana in Bengal when people in other states had received the benefits.
Union textiles minister Smriti Irani, who attended the gathering at Howrah, hit out at TMC over its “contempt” for the ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan. “No one can stay in a party that insults this slogan,” she said. Bally MLA Baishali Dalmiya, Uttarpara MLA Prabir Ghoshal, former Howrah mayor Rathin Chakravarty, former Ranaghat civic chief Partha Sarathi Chatterjee and actor-turned-politician Rudranil Ghosh were present on the dais at BJP’s Dumurjala show.