Mamata Banerjee on Sunday berated herself for being so “gullible” after her party’s Contai MP Sisir Adhikari, like his sons Suvendu and Soumendu, joined the BJP.

“I am a very simple person. A gadha (donkey)…gullible...I should have figured out these traitors earlier. I love and trust people too easily,” she said.

She flagged their alleged corruption, fiefdom and intimidation tactics, and said Midnapore had to be freed from them. She also brought up the old punar musiko bhava (Become a mouse again) story where a mouse was made a tiger by a rishi, but when it wanted to eat the rishi, it was reduced to a mouse again.

“There was a time when I used to respect and love them (the Adhikaris). I had painted a picture of goddess Tara and gifted them, for their home. Now, that gang of traitors has brought in the BJP…after conspiring with them since 2014,” she added.

Till her relations soured with the Adhikharis, the Shanti Niwas residents of Contai enjoyed immense clout in Trinamul and its government.

Prior to going to the BJP, Suvendu Adhikari was one of Trinamul’s tallest leaders, part of its seven-member apex steering committee as a general-secretary, a senior member of the state cabinet and former MP. Father Sisir was the party’s East Midnapore chief and brother Soumendu Contai’s civic chairman.

Another brother Dibyendu, the Tamluk MP from Trinamul, is yet to clarify his position.

Mamata referred to them as lobhi (greedy) and bhogi (hedonist), and claimed all the development in the region was carried out by her government, while they hogged the credit.

“Even I was not allowed to conduct rallies in Contai, because all of this used to be someone’s fief…jotdar (landlord), jomidar (liege lord), raja (king)… whatever they said used to happen here,” she said, accusing the clan of virtually handing the reins of the region to the Centre over the past few years.

“The Midnapore region must be set free from these people, then only will the people of Midnapore taste freedom afresh,” she added, claiming the Adhikaris maintain a horde of goons for intimidation.

Mamata alleged that the Adhikari clan’s people have been threatening people to leave the place and look for new homes elsewhere, as they now want to wipe out Trinamul from the region.

“Soon, you are the ones who will have to look for a new address, in Delhi or Mumbai,” she said, bringing up the mouse tale.