KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday urged former West Bengal Chief Minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee not to allow the return of any leader who deserted the party or joined a rebel faction during the difficult period following the Trinamool Congress's landslide defeat in the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly elections.
Addressing the party's annual July 21 Martyrs' Day rally near Birla Planetarium in central Kolkata, Abhishek Banerjee said those who abandoned the party should not be welcomed back under any circumstances.
“Those who think that I have lost political relevance must remember that Mamata Banerjee is my source of energy. The deserters should remember that whatever political recognition they achieved in life was because of Mamata Banerjee. Even the Almighty will not pardon those who desert their own mother. Hence, I will request her not to take back any of those deserters in the future,” Abhishek, who is the nephew of Mamata, said.
His remarks came amid an escalating confrontation between the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress and the "rebel but majority" faction headed by the party's expelled legislator Ritabrata Banerjee.
Responding from the dais of a parallel July 21 Martyrs' Day rally organised by the rebel faction on the nearby Jawaharlal Nehru Road, Trinamool Congress legislator Madan Mitra, who recently joined the dissident camp, launched a sharp attack on Abhishek Banerjee.
“Abhishek Banerjee purchased a chartered flight for his personal travel from the money donated by the ordinary party workers of Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee should expel Abhishek from the party first and then approach us. If she does that, we will again accept her as our supreme leader,” Mitra said.
Abhishek also asserted that the original Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee's leadership would never bow to pressure from investigating agencies.
They may unleash central agencies like the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax Department on one hand and state agencies like the Criminal Investigation Department and the Special Task Force on the other, the Trinamool MP said.
“Even if they slit my throat, the only slogans that will emerge from my body will be ‘Jai Bangla’ and ‘Mamata Banerjee Zindabad’. That is our conviction,” Abhishek said.
--IANS
