Kolkata: After the Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on Sunday said the saffron party will ensure Argentine football icon Lionel Messi comes to Bengal again and regales his thousands of fans in Yuva Bharati Krirangan with his football skills if it comes to power in 2026 Assembly polls, Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Monday mocked Adhikari saying that the latter might have forgotten that Messi is not a Mandal president of BJP.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that the BJP will not come to power and therefore, the question over the BJP bringing Messi to Kolkata again does not arise. Ghosh also asserted that Mamata Banerjee will again become the Chief Minister, and she will bring Messi again.
“Adhikari might have forgotten that in 2011, Messi came to Kolkata and played a football match. That time, Adhikari was in the Trinamool Congress. Messi will again come during the tenure of Mamata Banerjee as the Chief Minister,” Ghosh added. He also mocked Adhikari by saying: “Does Adhikari think that Messi is their Mandal president?”
Speaking to reporters, Adhikari on Sunday stated: “I am assuring the thousands of Messi fans in Bengal, I feel your pain. I promise we will bring Messi to Bengal once we are on the saddle in the state.”
Ghosh also attacked the CPI(M), saying that during the erstwhile Left Front regime, Yuva Bharati Krirangan had become a den of CPI(M) backed goons and anti-social elements used to operate from there.
He also alleged that a portion of land was given to a multinational company against which the Trinamool Congress had protested. When Subhas Chakraborty was the state sports minister, lands were encroached.
Later, the illegal encroachers were evicted by the Trinamool Congress government.
The ruling party also alleged that Adhikari has no idea about how such tours are conducted.
This is why he is making irresponsible statements.