Contai: Suvendu greeted with pro-Mamata slogans during civic body poll campaign

Kolkata: BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari was greeted with pro-Mamata Banerjee slogans on Thursday during his door-to-door campaign for the saffron party candidates in Contai Municipality area of Purba Medinipur district.

Election to this civic body will be held on February 27.

Adhikari was campaigning in ward no 21 when a group of TMC workers started raising slogans hailing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee.

The BJP leader, who left the TMC in December 2020 ahead of the Assembly election and joined the saffron party, stopped and asked what it (the slogan) was all about. The workers did not reply and continued to raise slogans. The Nandigram MLA then resumed campaigning. "We did not obstruct Suvendu Adhikari, we did not raise slogans against him. We only raised slogans in support of our leader. It is Suvendu Adhikari who makes provocative gestures everywhere. We did not fall into his trap," Sanatan Dolui, a local Trinamool activist, told reporters later.

The incident is almost a repeat of what had happened on February 14 in Kolkata. TMC supporters raised slogans against Adhikari and in favour of Mamata Banerjee when he had gone to Bhowanipore area. Later a complaint was lodged in local police station against Adhikari by a students' union.

Purba Medinipur district TMC president Tarun Maity claimed that Adhikari's campaigning will not cut much ice with the electorate as the people of Contai are not with him.