TMC’s national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and BJP’s Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari locked horns on Saturday as both the leaders took out rallies on rival turfs.
While TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee held a public meeting at East Medinipur’s Kanthi, which is known to be a stronghold of opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari, the BJP leader took his might to Banerjee’s Diamond Harbour.
The ongoing between the two senior leaders however intensified as TMC’s Banerjee dared BJP to put them in jail at Suvendu Adhikari’s beckoning that ‘all thieves must be arrested’.
Taking a dig at Suvendu and his party, Banerjee said “ He has said he will put me in jail. He will give a lesson to Bengal by stopping its money. We don’t need your money. Till Mamata Banerjee is there, we will not beg to Delhi. Come if you have guts, put me in jail”
The statement comes in the aftermath of the video which was put out by TMC in September this year where the Leader of the Opposition was heard threatening to jail Indian Police Services officers.
“These IPS will be put inside and the nephew will also go,” Adhikari is heard saying in the video,”.
Tweeting the video from its official Twitter handle, the TMC wrote: “SHOCKING! Bengal BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari THREATENS West Bengal Police and IPS officers who were simply doing their jobs. What does this indicate? Beyond the two #PuppetsOfBJP ED and CBI, WHAT ELSE DOES BJP CONTROL? Can we expect any justice in this nation under BJP’s misrule?”
The tweet came a few hours after BJP workers clashed with the police in Kolkata and other places in the state over their ‘Nabanna Obhijaan’, or the march to the secretariat in September of this year.
Meanwhile, Adhikari in his address to the public also pressed for the arrest of the ‘thieves’. “All thieves must be arrested. They have been out for too long” the BJP leader was quoted saying.
Ahead of the panchayat elections, dates for which have not yet been notified, the ruling TMC has released a video in which Banerjee is heard challenging Adhikari – “Come if you have the guts. I am going to challenge you in your area, your locality.”
The two leaders have been pitched as arch-rivals. Even when Adhikari was in the TMC, he was known to be “anti-Abhishek” and party insiders said when Abhishek gained more prominence after 2014, it was unacceptable for Adhikari and could essentially be the reason why he left the party to join the BJP. Once safely ensconced in the saffron party, Adhikari made Abhishek his most hit target while making political statements in public, they added.
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