Bengal CM and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee with party general Secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Kolkata: With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threatening to shatter her party with a huge ‘political explosion’ on Monday, the Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that she and her leaders and workers would respond to the ‘chocolate bombs’ of the saffron party by exposing the falsehoods and misdeeds of the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Banerjee said that neither she nor the TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee were safe as the BJP had targeted both of them. She, however, also added that they were not afraid of the BJP’s conspiracies against them.
Abhishek is a nephew of Banerjee and is perceived as her political heir apparent in West Bengal. He and his wife Rujira were questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with an alleged coal pilferage scam.
The central agencies have also been probing several other TMC leaders in connection with the allegations of corruption.
“The BJP is targeting me and Abhishek, we are not safe, but we are also not afraid of the saffron party's conspiracy,” she said, addressing an election rally in Balurghat in north Bengal. “We urge everyone to be on guard against a conspiracy against TMC leaders and the people of West Bengal.”
Her comment came a day after Suvendu Adhikari, a BJP heavyweight and the leader of the opposition in the state assembly, had said that a political explosion early next week would disintegrate the TMC.
“Wait for Monday. A huge explosion will shatter Pisi-Bhaipo’s party (the party of the aunt and the nephew). They will not be able to recover,” Adhikari had said in Malda in north Bengal on Saturday. He had later told journalists he had been referring to an impending political upheaval that would severely affect the TMC, which had already been in a precarious state of affairs.
Adhikari, who had been a minister in the TMC government in West Bengal, had quit the party and joined the BJP in December 2020.
“There is a traitor who joined the BJP to protect his family and ill-gotten wealth. Let me tell him, his threat to trigger a chocolate bomb explosion is treated with contempt by us,” Banerjee said on Sunday. “If you have courage, come up with truths, come up with facts today itself. I guess it takes time for you to fully build up a false narrative, to fully hatch the conspiracy. But rest assured we are ready to counter.”
"We will counter him by bursting firecrackers. For us, the firecrackers are unravelling discrepancies in the PM Care Fund and 'jumla' of crediting Rs 15 lakh in every citizen's bank account. He only peddles falsehood,” Banerjee said, targeting both Adhikari and Modi.
On the change in colour of the Doordarshan logo, Banerjee accused the Narendra Modi government of painting independent institutions such as Doordarshan in saffron hues, stating that the BJP 'appropriating the colour' was an insult to sacrifices made by monks and spiritual leaders of the country for ages.
She wondered how the logo of Doordarshan could be painted in saffron during elections, alleging it was done to suit the BJP's 'religion-based vote bank politics and agenda'.
"Why did the DD logo suddenly turn saffron? Why were official residences of army personnel painted in saffron? Why was the uniform of police in Kashi (Varanasi) changed to saffron?" she questioned.
"We strongly protest the decision (to change the colour of DD logo)... it is another instance of the BJP's authoritarian rule. If it returns to power, there will be no more polls in future. There will be one man, one party rule, and religious rights of different communities will be at stake," she said.
(With PTI inputs)