Modi's guarantee vs Didi's guarantee the real fight in Bengal: TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy

New Delhi, Mar 11 (PTI) The real fight in West Bengal is between "Modi's guarantee" and "Didi's guarantee", Trinamool Congress MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said on Monday as he defended his party's decision to field candidates from outside the state for the Lok Sabha polls.

Soon after the TMC announced its list of candidates for all 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal on Sunday, the BJP took a swipe at the ruling party in the state, saying it is "full" of what Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee calls "outsiders".

Dismissing the allegation, Roy claimed "outsiders" are those who insult Bengal.

Former cricketer Yusuf Pathan has been nominated by TMC from Baharampur, historically a stronghold of the Congress' state unit chief and five-term MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha, who won the Asansol seat in a bypoll on a TMC ticket in 2022, has been re-nominated.

Kirti Azad, a former cricketer and party leader, has been nominated from Bardhaman-Durgapur, which the BJP won in 2019.

In a video statement on Monday, Roy justified his party's choice of nominees for the Lok Sabha polls and took on both the BJP and the Congress which have been targetting the Mamata Banerjee-led party over its choice of candidates.

"Yesterday, TMC announced candidates for all 42 seats in West Bengal. It is unique because no political party in the country has been able to announce a full list of candidates of any state," the party's Rajya Sabha MP said.

"As soon as the names were declared and particularly when the TMC's Behrampur candidate and internationally acclaimed cricketer Yusuf Pathan's name was announced, the panic reaction came from the chief of Bengal Congress... There are now two Congress -- Indian National Congress and Adhir Ranjan Congress," he said.

Roy further said, "Krishna Menon and B R Ambedkar both stood for elections from Bengal. We never considered them outsiders. Outsiders are those who insult Bengal. Outsiders are those who talk about capturing Bengal, who deprive the state and try to capture power by misusing money power and probe agencies." In 1969, Menon, who was India's first defence minister, contested from the Midnapore Lok Sabha constituency in West Bengal and won. Ambedkar was elected to the Constituent Assembly from West Bengal.

The main issue in the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal is "Modi's guarantee versus Didi's guarantee", Roy added.

Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury attacked the Trinamool Congress for fielding Pathan from Baharampur and said, "The TMC is fielding candidates from outside the state. Maybe the TMC felt that its local leadership does not have credibility among the people." Several BJP leaders also took a dig at the TMC for fielding Pathan, who hails from Gujarat.

The BJP's West Bengal co-in-charge Amit Malviya said on Sunday, "Yusuf Pathan, the TMC’s Baharampur candidate, is from Baroda in Gujarat or West Bengal? The TMC list is full of what Mamata Banerjee calls 'bohiragotos' (outsiders)". PTI