Burdwan: A day after BJP President Amit Shah took on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a rally, top Trinamool Congress leaders on Wednesday launched a counter-attack on the saffron party.
"The support of people is with TMC and Mamata Banerjee. BJP cannot digest this fact," Banerjee's nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee told a party rally. "Can you block the sunlight by covering your eyes with your hand? No. Defeating Mamata Banerjee is not easy," he said taking a dig at Shah's claim yesterday that his party is going to form the next government in West Bengal.
BJP wants to defeat Mamata Banerjee by indulging in propaganda through a section of media, he alleged adding "A few dalals are carrying out negative propaganda against her." Banerjee, he said, had stood by the people in Nandigram, Singur and at Netai.
"Mamata Banerjee started her struggle wearing hawai chappals three decades ago. She still follows the same lifestyle ... She has a long history of struggle. She did not become a mass leader overnight ... They (BJP) do not know Bengali language, Bengali culture.
"Let there be a competition based on development. Let them (BJP) talk based on facts and figures," Abhishek, also national president of Trinamool Congress said.
"Did they talk about development, peace, culture or progress? No. They only talked about capturing power", he said adding investments are pouring into Bengal and the Chief Minister is visiting different places with industrialists for investment opportunities.
Claiming that BJP would suffer 'huge defeat' in the upcoming polls in Kolkata Municipal Corporation and several municipalities in the state, he said after becoming BJP chief Shah had campaigned for the Assembly bypoll in Chowringhee seat in September last year but TMC won it by 15000 votes.
Referring to yesterday's BJP rally here, he said that party's leaders had travelled without pilot cars. "This is an example that Bengal is safe and secure."
BJP, he said, had returned the pilot cars sent by the state government so that they could criticise Mamata Banerjee. "The more they (BJP) criticise TMC, the more will people give their support to us," he added. In a scathing attack against TMC on a host of issues including the Burdwan blast, Shah had on Tuesday warned Mamata Banerjee saying BJP's 'Vijay rath' cannot be stopped. "Now there are elections in Delhi. After that there is Bihar and Bengal and we're going to form a government in Bengal too," he had said.
Minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs Firhad Hakim said time has come to save Bengal's cultural heritage from BJP. Referring to the upcoming crucial February 13 bypoll to Bongaon Lok Sabha seat in the state for which BJP has fielded the son of former Trinamool Congress minister Manjul Krishna Thakur, Hakim said "The writing on the wall is clear. In Bongaon it will be Bhaag Subrata Bhaag."
"TMC has a long history of struggle. There is not a single village in Bengal where our workers have not been killed," he added. Subrata Thakur, son of a former TMC minister Manjul Krishna Thakur, who had quit the party last week, would fight on a BJP ticket in the ensuing Bongaon Lok Sabha by-poll.
Manjul Krishna Thakur, Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Minister had joined BJP on January 15 along with his son accusing the state government and TMC of functioning 'whimsically'.
Top TMC leader and state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee claimed that Shah had wrapped up his rally early yesterday because of low turnout. "They (BJP) are offering memberships just through missed calls. This is laughable," he said.
Claiming that more people attended the TMC rally than the one by BJP, veteran TMC leader and state Minister for Panchayat and Public Health Engineering Subrata Mukherjee said "BJP brought people from other states for their rally while in our meeting only district workers are present."
"We will respond to Opposition's slander campaign with development", Mukherjee, the senior-most member in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet, said. He said peace now prevails in Darjeeling Hills and in Jangalmahal, which comprise the former Maoist-affected districts of West Midnapur, Bankura and Purulia.
"There is economic growth. From Kanyahsree Prakalpa (project for scholarships to girls) to 100 Days Work, Bengal is number one," Mukherjee added.
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