KOLKATA: In a repeat of his previous 2017 visit of West Bengal to Naxalbari in Darjeeling district, families visited by BJP President Amit Shah in Lagda village of Purulia district joined ruling Trinamool Congress on Friday. Announcing the induction of four members of two families into TMC, party leader Madan Mitra said: "The families of Shishubala Rajbor and her son Sanjay Rajbor and Ashtami Rajbor and her son Puchu Rajbor at Purulia's Lagda village were visited by the BJP President Amit Shah on Thursday. However, the families were undergoing mental trauma as they were threatened by the BJP President to join the party. In response, they came straight to Kolkata and joined TMC."
This incident bears stark resemblance to tribal couple Geeta Mahali and her husband Raju Mahali joining TMC after feeding Amit Shah a simple lunch at their humble residence at Dakshin Kothiyajote village in Naxalbari in April last year. Drawing reference to the incident, Mitra issued a warning: "Last time Amit Shah ate on a banana leaf, this time he did not get a chair to sit and next time he won't get to enter Bengal," he said.
On the other hand, Asansol's BJP MP Babul Supriyo relinquished all facilities provided to him by the state government as an MP to protest against atrocities by the state government. He also accused the state administration of deliberately providing him with cars without airbags despite knowing that he undertakes a 240 km journey from Kolkata airport to his constituency Asansol through the Durgapur Expressway. Expressing his anguish in a series of tweets, the BJP MP wrote: "In protest against atrocities by the WB state govt, I have decided to refuse all facilities provided by the TMC government. That includes the state vehicle, all state guest houses and pilot cars."
"In any case, after realising that the state government shall continue to send me a vehicle that doesn't have airbags despite the fact that my drive to Asansol involves a 240 km drive from Kolkata airport through the Durgapur Expressway where countless lives are lost to accidents, I have started using a private car from the day my now nine-month-old daughter started travelling with me to every place I go in Bengal since she was just two-months-old," he added.
"I relive the TMC government & their officers, the agony & pain they have to go through, to provide hospitality to a BJP member in me. I can & will work my way through without any help from them. They shall remain a TMC government & me a BJP member, fighting their atrocities, so let's end this double standard once and for all. It not anything else, it will give me peace. Nothing more, Nothing less," the Asansol MP added.