Youth Trinamul chief and MP Abhishek Banerjee on Thursday said Trinamul wasn’t ready to take “lessons of nationalism from the BJP”.
Referring to last year’s standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at Galwan Valley in Ladakh, Abhishek who spoke at a rally in Gangarampur, South Dinajpur, said: “We are not ready to take lessons of nationalism from the BJP. The Prime Minister should answer people on steps the Centre has taken against China after the Galwan incident. They make tall talks…….people should know what the government has done to foil attempts to encroach on our nation’s land,” Abhishek said in his first public meeting of 2021.
Abhishek also tried to drive home the point that if BJP was voted to power, “outsiders” would control Bengal.
“I want to reassert that Kailash Vijayvargiya is an outsider and so are some other BJP leaders who are behaving as if their party will come to power in Bengal tomorrow. We want to make it clear that we will never allow outsiders or Delhi to control our state. People of north Bengal districts will never want it,” he said.
Abhishek launched a diatribe against former Trinamul heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, who defected to the BJP last month and has since lambasted Abhishek for alleged extortion. “People like him are asymptomatic traitors. He has been claiming that the lotus (BJP’s symbol) will bloom across the state and I asked him to first ensure that it blooms at his home. This made him get one of his brothers on board,” said Abhishek.
Abhishek’s visit to north Bengal is significant as the BJP won seven of eight Lok Sabha seats of the region in 2019 and has set a target of 50 of the 54 Assembly seats. Trinamul had suffered setbacks in Lok Sabha polls in South Dinajpur too.
Abhishek urged Trinamul leaders to put all efforts to ensure “not a single lotus blooms in north Bengal”.
“I will be in South Dinajpur again. I will visit all Assembly constituencies and will act on your guidance. But you have to prepare the ground to ensure that not a single lotus blooms here on in north Bengal,” he said.
