Suvendu Adhikari, who had joined the BJP last month, on Monday vowed to ensure Mamata Banerjee’s defeat in the Nandigram constituency by a margin of 50,000 votes.
“She has decided to fight from Nandigram. Whoever our party decides to field against her, I promise that if I don’t defeat her by half a lakh votes, I’ll quit politics,” Suvendu said at a public meeting at the Rashbehari crossing.
Banerjee had earlier in the day sprung a surprise by announcing her wish to contest the Assembly polls from Nandigram, a seat Suvendu had won in 2016. He had quit as the MLA before joining the BJP. The BJP had decided to hold a road show from Tollygunge to Rashbehari on the day Mamata travelled to Nandigram and addressed a rally in the aftermath of Suvendu switching over to the saffron camp.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh led the rally, in which Union minister Debasree Chaudhuri and other party leaders participated. The BJP leaders claimed 10,000 people took part in the rally that concluded with a public gathering.
Both Ghosh and Chaudhuri tried to present Mamata’s decision to “shift to Nandigram” as a result of her fear that she might lose in her traditional seat, Bhowanipore in Calcutta.
“She is trying to find some ground in Nandigram and we will sweep Bhowanipore,” Ghosh said at the meeting. “She is afraid that she will lose in Bhowanipore,” Ghosh added.
The road show, however, reflected the acrimony between the Trinamul Congress and the BJP with Suvendu and Ghosh accusing their rivals of attacking their rally at three points between Tollygunge and Rashbehari. While the rally was crossing Mudiali, bricks were allegedly hurled at it from a nearby building. BJP supporters retaliated by throwing the bricks back at the building. They also allegedly vandalised a few motorbikes that were parked nearby.
“I salute the members of our youth wing for giving a fitting reply to them (the attackers),” Suvendu said in his speech.
Although senior police officers refused to say if any lapse in security arrangements had led to the violence, a cop with Tollygunge police station said that police were preparing to initiate a case against unknown persons for the attack on the BJP’s road show.
The BJP has submitted a police complaint against Trinamul supporters for carrying out an attack on their rally.
Around 27km away from Suvendu’s road show in south Calcutta, two other Trinamul turncoats, Sovan Chattopadhyay and Baisakhi Banerjee, led a rally at Bishnupur in South 24-Parganas on Monday.
Speaking at a rally at the end of the road show, Chattopadhyay attacked Mamata for refusing to recognise the role of Contai’s Adhikari family in the Nandigram movement.
He also referred to Mamata’s comments where she had compared the BJP to a washing machine that “purified” tainted leaders. “Don’t forget that you had gone into an alliance with the BJP several times in the past,” he said.
While Suvendu is scheduled to hold a rally at Khejuria’s Heria in East Midnapore on Tuesday, he announced on Monday that he would hold another rally soon in Calcutta along with Ghosh.
“The next rally will be from Garia crossing to Hazra crossing,” he said. “We won’t take any police permission, but will hold a public meeting at Hazra itself,” he added. Mamata lives near Hazra.
