After TMC stalwart Suvendu Adhikari joined BJP in the presence of union home minister Amit Shah, his former party colleagues are continuously attacking him for changing loyalty. In the latest such incident, TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee has compared him with an asymptomatic COVID-19 patient.
Banerjee, who is also the chief of TMC’s youth wing, said that Suvendu Adhikari is like an asymptomatic COVID-19 patient who betrayed the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was sabotaging it from inside. “There were some people in the party who were like asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. We tracked their activities and identified them. We are happy to get rid of such viruses who had betrayed the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and had been sabotaging the party since the past few months,” Abhishek Banerjee said while addressing a rally in his constituency Diamond Harbour.
He added that those who want to leave TMC for selfish reasons are free to do so. “If you have the courage, float your own party like Mamata Banerjee did in 1998. She had not joined the BJP or the CPI (M),” he said.
Banerjee also reacted to Suvendu Adhikari calling him as “extortionist bhaipo (nephew)”, saying that his name didn’t came up any scam. He added that it was Suvendu Adhikari whose name had emerged in Narada sting operation. He said, “You have raised the slogan to remove extortionist ‘bhaipo’ (nephew). Whose name figured in Narada sting operation? I am not involved in either Narada sting or Saradha scam. You took a sudden political somersault to save yourself from central agencies like CBI and ED.”
Asserting that he is not involved in extortion, Abhisek Banerjee said, “If you can prove that I had ever been involved in extortion activities, I will accept any punishment in the court of the people. If you have guts, deploy CBI or ED after me.”
The Trinamool Congress leader also mocked Suvendu Adhikari for failing to shift his father and two brothers from TMC to BJP. “You have failed to bloom the lotus in your own house. How can you make the lotus bloom in the entire state?” he said.
Suvendu Adhikari’s father and Kanthi MP Sisir Kumar Adhikari, his brother and Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari and another brother and Chairman of Kanthi Municipality Soumendu Adhikari are still leaders of TMC. The Adhikari family have played a major role in the growth of TMC in the East Midnapore district. Sisir Adhikari and his three sons have been controlling the Kanthi and Tamluk Lok Sabha seats, the assembly seats and urban bodies in the region for more than a decade now.
