“Why are so many people leaving the Congress of Trinamool? Because of the misrule, exploitation and nepotism of Mamat Banerjee. Didi, this is just the beginning of it. By the time the polls arrive, you’ll be left behind,” he said.
Nine MLAs from separate parties and Trinamool MP Sunil Mondal joined the BJP in the presence of Mr Shah. Former President of the BJP reiterated that the party will form the next state government with more than 200 seats. West Bengal is a 294-member legislature.
Both Mr. Shah and Mr. Adhikari alluded to rising dissatisfaction among the people and the party over the rise of Mrs. Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Mr. Adhikari also said, “Bhaipo Hatao (Remove The Nephew)”
“I have a long association with Amit Shah ji. I have been loved like a brother by the BJP. When I was afflicted by COVID-19, no one from the TMC for whom I have given my life, asked me how I was. But Amit Shah did, twice,” Mr Adhikari said in his speech.
The dissident of Trinamool resigned first from the cabinet on November 27 and then from the party on December 16. His associates vowed a “political storm more violent than Cyclone Amphan” to sweep Bengal from Darjeeling to Digha” that would usurp the government of Ms Banerjee.
Mr Shah took examples of freedom fighters like Khudiram Bose and Ramprasad Bismil to tell rival parties in West Bengal that indulging in regionalism was “shallow politics” and ought to be shunned – a possible counter to Trinamool’s efforts at painting the BJP as “outsiders”.
The Home Minister, accompanied by Bengal BJP leader like Dilip Ghosh and the party’s West Bengal in-charge, Kailash Vijayvargiya, then went on to have lunch at a farmer’s house in Belijuri village in West Midnapore district.
Mr Shah’s West Bengal visit comes nine days after a convoy of BJP chief JP Nadda was attacked by alleged Trinamool workers, sparking a huge row between the centre and the state.
