BJP is afraid, even PM doesn't have guts to take 'nephew's name': Abhishek Banerjee

Kolkata: Slamming the BJP's 'nephew' innuendo from a mammoth rally in Satgachhia in South 24-Parganas, on Sunday, Abishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and president of the party's youth wing dared the saffron party's leaders to take his name if they had any allegations against him and face the consequence.

"The BJP, which has repeatedly called me a nephew, should call me by name if they have the courage. The small, big and medium leaders of the BJP have repeatedly called me a nephew," he alleged.

He also made it clear that the TMC will fight the ensuing Assembly election unitedly and stressed that the party was the "mother" of all the workers and no individual's ambition can be bigger than the "mother".

Stating that the saffron party leaders had no grit, the TMC MP remarked: "The BJP leaders including Narendra Modi do not have the guts to take my name instead they say 'bhatija' or 'bhaipo'. Mukul Roy took my name, after leaving TMC, and made false allegations against me that Biswa Bangla Company is owned by me. I took him to the High Court and defeated him. The leaders have taken lessons from the incident and from then on leaders belonging to CPI(M), Congress and BJP are all using rhetoric to level charges against me."

He added: "I do not hesitate to take the names of Amit Shah, Kailash Vijayvargiya and Sunil Deodhar and call them outsiders. I call Aakash Vijayvargiya a gangster. Why take rhetoric? if you want to say something take the name directly."

Banerjee challenged BJP leaders to sit with him face to face in any television channel and take part in the debate on the work done by Narendra Modi-led government from 2014 and the development work carried out by Mamata Banerjee from 2011.

"The BJP leaders do not talk on the development programmes, they believe in communal politics and propagate false nationalism to win elections. The Prime Minister should come out with a clear statement whether China has occupied Indian territory in Leh and Ladhak. If China has occupied Indian territory, then stringent action should be taken. But the PM is silent on the issue and to cover up the issue he has banned some Chinese apps. The PM is vocal against Pakisthan for encroaching land, but is soft against China who had brutally killed our soldiers," the MP said.

He questioned as to how many times did Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya or BJP national secretary Sunil Deodhar come to Bengal or the party's state chief Dilip Ghosh went to the people since the Coronavirus-induced lockdown began in March.

He said no BJP leader was seen on the street at the time. "Only Mamata Banerjee could be seen on the street. She went to different areas and created awareness among the people about the COVID-19 pandemic. Modi or Amit Shah did not come then and now they are planning to win the Assembly election in 2021," he remarked adding "Mamata Banerjee had launched movements spanning over several years to win the confidence of people."

Reiterating that the TMC will fight the Assembly elections unitedly, without taking any names, Banerjee said: "I didn't get on the parachute and I didn't even get on the elevator, none of the grassroots' parachuted or took the elevator. Else they could have held at least 35 big posts." He added that Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool were not formed in one day. "He who fights with the sun called Mamata will shine," the stated the TMC youth leader and MP.

Stating that TMC stood for development work only, he said: "Under no circumstance, compromise can be made with development work." He assured to install 350 tubewells in Bishnupur I and II and Budge I and II blocks to supply drinking water and said that he will talk to the state government so that these areas could be included in the Falta Mathurapur water supply scheme.

"During Amphan nearly 2 lakh people living in areas under Diamond Harbour constituency were provided assistance after the cyclone had damaged or razed their houses.