West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday hit out at the BJP quoting veteran Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and former Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sakar.
Addressing a gathering in Kolkata, she said,“Manik babu [Manik Sarkar] is saying go to Tripura and see what the BJP has done there”.
This she repeated several times at the convention of SC/ST party supporters. She said that some people from Tripura have even taken shelter in the West Bengal. The Trinamool Congress chairperson, who will face the BJP in the coming Assembly polls as the main contender, said the model of defections that was tried in Tripura was being done in West Bengal.
“I feel sad that many from the Congress joined the BJP in Tripura. The BJP is trying the same formula in Bengal. They want to come to power by taking some people who have betrayed us,” she stated. The BJP did not give jobs it had promised to the people of Tripura; on the contrary it had oppressed the people of the State, she alleged. She also raised the implementation of the National Register of Citizens in the BJP-ruled Assam.
While speaking at a public gathering at Bardhaman in West Bengal two days ago , Mr. Sarkar said, “Take a train to Tripura, talk to rickshaw pullers and grocers and learn from them what a blunder they committed by voting the BJP to power”.
The BJP came to power in Tripura in 2018 by defeating the Left front under the leadership of Mr. Sarkar, who was Chief Minister for 20 years.
Suvendu praises Buddhadeb
It is not only Ms. Banerjee who is quoting CPI(M) leaders- even leaders from the BJP have suddenly started referring to veteran CPI(M) leaders. Suvendu Adhikari, during a public rally, heaped praises on former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on January 20.
“I was never against the politics of the Left Front. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was a good man. I was against people like Laxman Seth [former CPI(M) leader and former Haldia MP] and ‘harmad’ [goon] of the Left Front,” Mr Adhikari said.
During his virtual address at Howrah on January 31, Union Home Minister Amit Shah targeted the TMC regime by saying Ms. Banerjee had taken the State to a far worse situation where the State was 10 years ago during the Left Front regime.
