Shameless to cash in on B’desh violence, Abhishek slams BJP

Dinhata: Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee on Monday came down heavily on BJP over its efforts to “capitalize” on hurt sentiments following the attack on minorities in Bangladesh.

“A BJP leader (Suvendu Adhikari) has recently said that the attack on minorities across the border will help in the uptick of votes in BJP’s favour. What kind of shameless politics is this? You can’t do good for people and are now trying to cash in on their hurt sentiments,” the Trinamool national general secretary said, calling upon Dinhata voters to save India from BJP’s clutches.

Abhishek focused on the development agenda and threw the who-did-what question to the public. “Union home minister Amit Shah had promised raising of a separate Narayani Sena for Rajbanshi community. Where is it? In contrast, Mamata Banerjee had promised a Narayani battalion. The construction of Narayani battalion is under way at Mekhliganj. Where is Rajbanshi icon Chilla Roy’s statue? The Union home minister had spoken about it during the assembly poll campaign,” he said.

Abhishek then drew a difference between Trinamool and BJP. “We lost many seats in Cooch Behar. But we didn’t desert the people. That should happen with politics. But where have BJP leaders gone? Your MP (Nisith Pramanik) stays out of Cooch Behar most of the time.”

“Look at us,” he continued. “Mamata Banerjee had promised Lakshmir Bhandar. Forms are being filled up. Work has started for the student credit cards. Our candidate Udayan Guha lost polls last time. He didn’t leave Dinhata.”

With an eye on refugee voters who form a considerable section of the Dinhata population, the Trinamool leader said: “See what happened in Assam during the NRC exercise. As many as 15 lakh Bengali Hindus were dropped from the final register of citizens. Many of them are languishing in detention centres.”

Abhishek told the gathering that Trinamool under Mamata Banerjee would be going to Goa, Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh to save India. “People across the country have started saying ‘Desh ki netri kaisi ho, Mamata didi jaisi ho’. The candidate in Dinhata is not Udayan Guha, it is Mamata Banerjee. People gave us a 3-0 in the recently-held bypolls. We expect to win all four bypolls in the second phase,” he said.