Mamata's dig at Suvendu: 'Some call me outsider, people from Gujarat insiders'

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reacted to her former aide-turned-rival Suvendhu Adhikari’s “outsider” taunt at her on Tuesday (March 9) by accusing him of making “those from Gujarat” the ‘insiders’.

Speaking at a rally of booth-level TMC workers at Nandigram a day before she files her poll papers to contest from the seat, Banerjee said, “If I am an outsider, how did I become the Chief Minister? Nandigram is dear to me. It withstood bullets and bombs.”

Adhikari had called himself bhoomiputra (son of the soil) and the CM an ‘outsider’ in Nandigram, a day after she had announced that she would contest from this constituency.

Without taking Adhikari’s name, Banerjee said, “I have heard that people are calling me an outsider in Nandigram. I am amazed, I was born and brought up in the neighbouring Birbhum district, and the person who is calling me an outsider was also not born here. Today, I have become an outsider, and those coming from Gujarat have become insiders in Bengal.” After her election rally, the CM served tea to a few people at a tea stall in Nandigram. 

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Accusing the BJP of stoking communal passions, she said that the saffron party was “playing with religion” and was dividing Bengal, even as she recited a Durga mantra on the stage. She said that those who have sold their souls to outsiders were insulting the “sacred” Nandigram land acquisition movement, in which both communities had fought together, by playing the communal card, said media reports.

Banerjee is scheduled to visit Nandigram and file her nomination on Wednesday, while Suvendu Adhikari will do the same on March 12.

There was a fresh bout of defections on March 8 with five TMC MLAs, angry for not being given party tickets to contest the election, crossed over to the BJP. West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh, national vice-president Mukul Roy, Suvendu Adhikari and Locket Chatterjee welcomed the leaders to the saffron camp.

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Meanwhile, Adhikari, who led a padayatra in Jhargam district, extorted people to oust the TMC from power in Bengal. Sporting a saffron tilak on his forehead and encircled by BJP party workers, he chanted ‘Hare Krishna Hare Hare, BJP Ghore Ghore’ (BJP in every household). And his supporters, holding lotus symbol cutouts and saffron coloured balloons raised slogans like ‘TMC sarkar aar nei darkar’ (We don’t need the TMC government any longer).

Truly, Khele Hobe, the game is on, to use a TMC slogan in this upcoming state Assembly elections.