File photo of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
Mamata Banerjee has refused to rebut BJP chief Amit Shah on the acerbic attack he made on her at a Kolkata rally yesterday, as she reportedly believes he is "not of her stature."
At a counter-rally in the city that she did not attend, her nephew and Trinamool lawmaker Abhishek Banerjee compared her to Prime Minster Narendra Modi saying, "The PM has become an NRI PM. He has become the foreign minister. Drives in a fancy car. Mamata Banerjee has been working hard. She wears chappals and a cheap saree."
"You don't need to get a royal Bengal tiger to fight a mouse," Mr Banerjee said, explaining the chief minister's absence at the rally.
A Trinamool minister Subrata Mukherjee rubbished Mr Shah's allegations of corruption against Ms Banerjee saying, "I have not seen Gandhi. I have seen Mamata Banerjee. She pays for her tea. Rides her own car."
He also suggested, "Amit Shah said Didi didi didi 33 times; if he had said Jai Shri Ram as may times he would've met Ram."
"Didi if you can hear and if you can see, please see that I am Amit Shah, a very small worker of the BJP. I have come to Bengal to uproot the corrupt TMC regime from the state," Mr Shah declared in Ms Banerjee's turf yesterday, in a speech full of jibes at the Bengal CM and many allegations.
He accused her of creating hurdles in the way of an investigation by the National Investigation Agency or NIA into the recent Burdwan blast, alleging that Ms Banerjee was shielding leaders of her party, the Trinamool Congress.
"Saradha Chit Fund money was used in the Burdwan blast. The NIA is not being allowed to probe the blast properly. Hurdles are being created. It is being done in order to save TMC leaders who are involved in the blast," Mr Shah alleged.
To his assertion that the BJP would form the next government in Bengal, the Trinamool leaders said, "It's do or die now... the Mamata movement uprooted the CPM. The BJP is trying to take that place."