Suvendu Adhikari, Dec 19: Ex-aide of Mamata Banerjee Suvendu Adhikari has joined the BJP in presence of Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah during his Midnapore rally. Suvendu Adhikari had recently resigned from Trinamool Congress. The BJP flag was passed on to all those present next to Amit Shah, including Suvendu Adhikari.
Shah’s two-day visit to Bengal was accompanied by a frenzy of leaders quitting TMC, with some making their way back to the party too.
The Medinipur College Grounds saw enormous crowds in one of the first big rallies, with little attention to COVID-19 protocols, in the state ahead of the 2021 assembly polls.
In addition to Adhikari, nearly 50 former TMC, Congress and Left front leaders joined BJP in Shah’s presence. Among them were Bardhaman East MP Sunit Mondal, former MP Dasharath Tirkey, Contai MLA Contai Banashree Maity, Haldia MLA Tapashi Mondal, CPI MLA Ashok Dinda, Barrackpore MLA Shilbhadra Dutta, Gajan MLA Dipali Biswas, former state minister Shyamapada Mukherjee, and Kalna MP Biswajit Kundu.
Nine sitting MLAs, including five from Mamata Banerjee’s party, were among those who joined the BJP.
“I have a long association with Amit Shah Ji,” said Adhikari, addressing the rally. “I have been loved like a brother by the BJP. When I was afflicted by COVID-19, no one from the TMC for whom I have given my life, asked me how I was. But Amit Shah did, twice,” he added.
Adhikari finally resigned from the Mamata Banerjee-led party on Thursday, at once expressing fear that he may be implicated in criminal cases because of his exit.
“I want Kolkata and Delhi to have the same government, otherwise, Bengal will not be saved,” Adhikari said.
In a direct challenge to Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, Adhikari gave out a call to remove the “extortionist nephew.”
Shah had earlier said on Saturday that pre-Independence revolutionary Khudiram Bose is as much pride for the whole of India as he is of Bengal, hitting out at those indulging in “narrow politics of regionalism.”
A portion of the crowd visibly left the grounds after Adhikari’s speech and before Shah took to the podium.
“An MP, 9 MLAs, one MoS…have joined us,” said Shah an address peppered with mentions of farmers.
