Defeat BJP to save Bengal's culture & heritage: Abhishek

Kolkata: Trinamool Youth Congress president Abhishek Banerjee on Wednesday said the upcoming Assembly election in Bengal was not only about electing Trinamool Congress for the third time, but it was also a fight to save the tradition of Bengal.

"The BJP is considering Bengal to be the same as Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, where they can dictate their terms. But the people of Bengal will not surrender before the Delhi government. Bengal has its own culture and tradition and we will always fight for upholding it,"Banerjee said, after holding a roadshow at Saltora in Bankura.

Banerjee's roadshow from Saltora College More to Chowrasta junction in favour of TMC candidate Santosh Mondal was attended by lakhs of people. Saltora is going to polls on March 27 during the first phase of elections.

"They are using investigating agencies to fight the elections while we are taking our development report card door-to-door. If the polls are contested on the basis of development parameters comparing what the Narendra Modi-led government had in 7 years against the works done by Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the past 10 years, then we will score 10-0 (with BJP bagging zero seats). But, if this isn't the outcome, I am ready to quit politics," Banerjee said.

Calling the BJP leaders like Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda, Yogi Adityanath, Nitin Gadkari— who have been campaigning in Bengal— as 'outsiders,' Banerjee challenged them to speak impromptu. "Let these 'outsiders' speak for 2 minutes in Bengali without looking at any paper or teleprompter and I will speak for an hour in Hindi language without looking at any teleprompter or paper. If they can, I declare openly that TMC will not contest in the Assembly election," he reiterated.

Banerjee came down heavily upon the Centre for the rising price of petrol, diesel and LPG gas. "The more they chant 'Jai Sri Ram', the price of LPG will also increase further," he maintained.

He maintained that a section of people in the state who had voted for the saffron party during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Bengal have realized their mistake. "They had fooled you making false promises in 2019, now it is time for you to make amends and fool them by pressing the EVM button in favour of TMC," he added.