“Who knows, Midnapore may be renamed ‘Modi’pur, if BJP comes to power!”: Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress’ Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, speaking at a rally in Dantan of West Midnapore on Monday, took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by comparing the gathering at his rally with that of Amit Shah’s proposed meeting in Jhargram, earlier today.

He said, “People, who have come here are the true followers of the Trinamool Congress, unlike in Jhargram, where the Union Home Minister was supposed to address a rally, but aborted the plan after seeing the thin attendance of people. The minister cited technical glitch in his chopper as the reason for not joining the rally.” The Trinamool has alleged that Shah had to cancel the Jhargram as the venue was not filling up. The BJP said that there was a technical glitch in the chopper he was travelling in. Shah spoke over phone and it was played in loudspeakers at the meeting venue.

Touching on the local sentiments of people, Abhishek Banerjee said at the Dantan meeting that Midnapore is the land of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, the place where revolutionary Matangini Hazra was born. “And these people who are so eager to come to power, were responsible for breaking the statue of reformer and educationist Vidyasagar in Kolkata. You should drive away such traitors and outsiders like him,” said Abhishek Banerjee.

He chided the BJP leaders for promising to turn the state into ‘Sonar Bangla’. He said, “Why hasn’t Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and other states ruled by the BJP turned into ‘gold’ till now? And they are making such promises for Bengal. This bluff will not work here. Don’t forget, when you vote for the Trinamool Congress, you are not voting for the local candidate but you are voting for Mamata Didi.”

He reminded people how the Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a spree of renaming various bodies in his name. “The way Modi changed the name of Motera Stadium, inside the Sardar Patel sports complex, into Narendra Modi stadium. Don’t be surprised if he changes the name of the district to Modipur from Midnapore.”

Later Abhishek Banerjee held a roadshow from Girza More to Jagannath Temple More at Midnapore in favour of their star candidate June Maliah.