New Delhi/Kolkata: The BJP on Sunday, Jan 31, made a mega push to wrest power in Mamata Banerjee-ruled West Bengal and a new turncoat Rajib Banerjee said the day marks the end of Trinamool Congress rule in the state. “It’s the beginning of an end….It’s time to have a double engine (same party government) in Bengal,” said former state Forest Minister Rajib Banerjee, who joined BJP at Home Minister Amit Shah’s residence in Delhi on Jan 30.
Several other former Trinamool legislators and organisational leaders including Baishali Dalmiya also have joined the saffron party giving it a significant advantage.
In a virtual address from Delhi, Mr Shah said, more and more Trinamool leaders and also from other parties – Congress and Left Front – and celebrities are joining the BJP. “Mamata Di will find herself extremely isolated by the time elections come”.
Polls in Bengal along with Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and also UT of Puducherry are due by April-May. Shah directed his tirade against Mamata and said the Chief Minister was desperately working towards “Bhatija Kalyan (welfare of her lawmaker nephew Abhishek Banerjee).” “She seems to have no job other than making her nephew the Chief Minister,” said the Home Minister, who is personally supervising BJP’s campaign strategy in the erstwhile Left Front ruled state.
Most former Trinamool leaders who quit the party and joined the BJP have blamed Abhishek for emerging as an unconstitutional power centre in the state and in Trinamool. Last month, the BJP staged a mini coup in the Trinamool camp and ensured that her onetime aide and a popular mass leader from Nandigram area Suvendu Adhikari also joined the BJP.
In his address, Mr Shah claimed that a great wave of transition ‘real poriborton’ is passing through the state of West Bengal. “Look at the past 10 years, even the slogan Maa, Mati, Manush have faded into the background,” Shah said and exuded confidence that the Lotus party will form next government in the state.
Shah skipped visiting Bengal after a bomb explosion in Delhi.
However, Union Minister and Amethi lawmaker Smriti Irani were present for the party’s rally at Howrah. She said while Mamata Banerjee makes politics of Jai Shri Ram slogan, the Ram Rajya is knocking Bengal’s doors. Meanwhile, another Trinamool MP, Dibyendu Adhikari, younger brother of Suvendu Adhikari, also inched forward to join the BJP.
He confirmed his meeting with Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and described the meeting as a mere courtesy call. Speculation is rife about possibility of some Trinamool leaders could join BJP in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 7.
