“Your son is my ‘bhaipo’, let me ask how he is earning crores…” Mamata Banerjee challenges Amit Shah at Pailan meeting

The run-up to the Assembly elections 2021 in West Bengal has been abuzz with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders targeting Bengal Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the party’s MP from Diamond Harbour.

Not only BJP leaders from Bengal, even Union Home Minister Amit Shah has mentioned the bhaipo (nephew) in several public meetings. Thursday was no exception, and Shah attacked Abhishek Banerjee without naming him, calling him bhaipo all over again, and attacked him, asking people to put an end to the “Pishi-Bhaipo” rule in the state.

Retaliating, Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that it was infuriating that Abhishek Banerjee is being repeatedly targeted. “By the same logic, your son (Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, who is secretary, Board of Control for Cricket in India) is my bhaipo. Should I talk about his corruption?” Banerjee said at a party rally in Pailan of South 24 Parganas. “How is he making crores? How has he become a cricket administrator so quickly?” she asked. Banerjee then challenged Shah to fight elections against Abhishek Banerjee. “He is a party worker like all of us, and targeting anyone from the party hurts all of us,” she said.

The Trinamool chief said that Abhishek Banerjee could have taken the easy route of being an MP by choosing to be a Rajya Sabha member, but he fought the Lok Sabha election and got the people’s mandate.

Earlier in the day, Shah held roadshows as a part of the Parivartan Yatra and also held rallies in South 24 Parganas, where he said funds sent to Bengal by the Narendra Modi-led Central government did not reach the people as it was siphoned off by the “syndicate”.