CONTAI (EAST MIDNAPORE): Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday that she had been a “boro gadha (fool)” to trust “Mir Jafars” in Trinamool who went on to join BJP, reinforcing its identity as a “party of traitors and robbers”.
Her remarks came on the home turf of the Adhikaris, whose patriarch and Kanthi MP Sisir Adhikari earlier in the day became the third member of the family to switch to the saffron camp.
Responding to PM Narendra Modi’s “TMC thieves” barb, Mamata said, “TMC chor (thief)? Narendra Modi, tomar gaddar-ra chor-er baba (the traitors with you are the father of all thieves). People never forgive traitors. Bengal has not forgiven the Mir Jafars”.
Mamata didn’t mention any of the Adhikaris by name, but made no secret of the fact that she felt betrayed. “I had blind faith in them. I had given them my love and affection. In my affection, I couldn’t see the treachery beneath their masks,” she said. “The traitors have made a lot of money. They have made so much money that they have now fled to save it. Else, I would have thrown them out. We will probe the complaint about a Rs 5,000-crore scam in Contai Co-operative Bank”.
The CM said the worst part was that the turncoats had brazenly admitted to being in touch with BJP “since 2014”.
“I had to take permission to come to East Midnapore. They behaved as if it is their fief or a Centre-governed territory. I can come at will.Whatever development has taken place here in the past decade was done by me and my government, for which the traitors took undue credit,” she said.
Without naming BJP’s Nandigram candidate Suvendu Adhikari, the CM said, “I had appointed him as a minister and, therefore, the plaques have their names. They made a bagful of cash and now have gone to BJP. These Vibhishans are more dangerous”.
The CM reminded party workers at all her three rallies of the day — in Contai South, Contai North and Nandakumar in East Midnapore — to keep a month-long vigil on ballot boxes. “The central and state police will do their job, but it is your responsibility to ensure people’s votes are guarded. Do not eat anything offered by outsiders. If EVMs stop functioning, do not return home; wait till voting resumes,” she said.