KOLKATA: Nobody from Mamata Banerjee’s family wants to be chief minister, Trinamool Congress said on Saturday, hurling the nepotism barb back at BJP and its recruit Suvendu Adhikari.
“Adhikari-tantra ki paribar-tantra na (Are the Adhikaris not guilty of promoting inheritance politics)? What quality does the BCCI secretary (Jay Shah) have other than being the Union home minister’s son?” TMC’s Lok Sabha chief whip Kalyan Banerjee said, reacting to BJP’s criticism of his party allegedly promoting Diamond Harbour MP and CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee “at the expense of other leaders”.
Banerjee’s remarks were part of Trinamool’s first formal rebuttal of BJP and Adhikari’s refrain that “dynastic politics” has taken root in Mamata’s party. “Mamata Banerjee is Bengal CM because of people’s love. She has been on the streets for four-and-a-half decades, speaking for people’s rights, fighting for them. She did not become CM overnight. And neither can anyone else. The people of Bengal made her CM,” he said. “BJP is trying to weave a narrative of falsehood and lies. That is what they are adept at. Lies will help them deviate the narrative from work and development. They have failed voters in every sector.”
Describing Adhikari as “a traitor”, the Serampore MP alluded to the former’s family as one promoting the same dynastic politics he has accused Trinamool of. Adhikari’s father, Sisir Adhikari, and one brother, Dibyendu Adhikari, are MPs. Another brother, Soumendu Adhikari, is a municipality chairman.
“He (Adhikari) himself has said that he has been in touch with Shah for several years. He touched Shah’s feet today; throughout the last decade, he touched Mamata Banerjee’s feet. What does one make of such a person? He himself said Shah called him twice when his mother was hospitalised. He himself said he met Shah and spoke to him several times, even during the UP elections,” Banerjee said.
“It is easy to talk. But what is he without Mamata Banerjee? Why did he lose polls in 1996 and 2001? He even lost the 2004 Lok Sabha polls to Laxman Seth (CPM). We would urge him to contest from Nandigram again. Let him come in his bulletproof car with a retinue of 30-40 paramilitary personnel. It will be a public political fight, let us see.”
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