Suvendu Adhikari quit the Trinamool Congress and joined BJP last week
Asking people to dislodge the "corrupt" Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal, newly inducted BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Tuesday said "opportunist" members of the ruling party had, in the past, sought help from the BJP and the Congress for survival, only to ditch them later.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh replied the former state minister might have forgotten he was a member of the Mamata Banerjee-led party until recently.
Mr Adhikari, while addressing his first public meeting in east Burdwan after joining the BJP last Saturday, labelled the TMC as a "private company", which does not believe in upholding democratic principles.
He said the TMC would not have lasted beyond 2001, had it not taken help from the BJP after coming into existence in 1998. "Had BJP heavyweights Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani not come to the aid of the fledgling TMC during the successive Lok Sabha polls, assembly polls and panchayat polls after 1998, it would not have existed beyond 2001," Mr Adhikari said.
"In 2004, the TMC contested Lok Saha elections as an NDA partner, and I had held the TMC flag in one hand and BJP flag in another," the 50-year-old leader said.
He said Mamata Banerjee had taken the help of Congress in 2011 assembly polls to defeat the Left, forgetting that she had deserted the same party to form her own outfit earlier.
"After mass killings on March 14, 2007, a BJP delegation of Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj had visited the area. The BJP had stalled parliamentary proceedings for over 60 days in protest against the firing," Mr Adhikari said, referring to the protest in Nandigram then.
People of the state, back in 2011, had voted for "paribartan (change of guard), but in reality corruption and extortion increased, and that went on till Home Minister Amit Shah put a lid on all illegal activities", the former state transport minister said.
Taking a swipe at Mr Adhikari over his remarks, a TMC spokesperson said, "He is talking like a child. He has forgotten he was with the Mamata Banerjee until recently and raised 'Modi hatao' slogans even a few days ago."
Assembly elections in West Bengal are due early next year.