LS elections: TMC challenges Suvendu to fight Abhishek from Diamond Harbour seat

Kolkata: With the BJP yet to announce its candidate for the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has challenged Suvendu Adhikari to contest that seat against its leader Abhishek Banerjee.

On Tuesday, while addressing a press conference, TMC had put up “wanted” posters for BJP candidates from Diamond Harbour and Asansol constituency. Kunal Ghosh said: “Trinamool is confident of its victory and aims to win at least 30-35 seats out of the total 42 seats in Bengal. Our party leaders Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee have already announced candidates for all 42 seats. But who do we fight against if BJP does not name its candidates?”

Ghosh alleged the BJP seems to be going through turbulent times as it is coming up with few names in phases while there is an inner schism within the party. “There is a clear factional feud between the veteran and young leaders of BJP,” he alleged. Targeting state BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, who is also the Nandigram MLA, Ghosh said: “He keeps on attacking Abhishek Banerjee every day from morning to night. Why can’t he gather the guts to stand against Abhishek from Diamond Harbour constituency? We know that our leader will win the seat with a vote margin of four to five lakhs.”

Ghosh said the BJP which is “anti-Bengal” is now struggling to find candidates for Lok Sabha seats in Bengal and some of the names announced by them are either defectors or belong to a “circus party”.

Earlier, when word went round that Indian Secular Front’s Naushad Siddiqui, also the Bhangor MLA, would contest against Abhishek from Diamond Harbour, Banerjee had said that anyone is free to contest since it is the people who have the last word in a democracy. Meanwhile, for the Asansol seat, the BJP had announced the name of Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh in their first list. Although Singh had backed out initially, he took to his social media handle later and announced that he would contest the polls, however, no further comments were made as to where the BJP leader would contest the polls.