KOLKATA: Twenty-four hours after BJP’s Kailash Vijayvargiya took a dig at Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee and her nephew without naming him, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Sunday made a stinging attack by making reference to Jay Shah.
“You are talking about nephew. If you have guts, utter the name of the nephew. Your nephew is in the BCCI,’’ he said, without naming Union minister Amit Shah’s son.
The TMC is not in favour of personal attacks in the political arena, Ghosh also said during a press conference here.
"We want that the debate should be on development work in the state. But since the BJP has nothing to talk about in this regard, it is indulging in negative comments, creating unrest and the most condemnable act of personal attacks and character assassination," he said.
There should not be personal attacks against anyone as it may have repercussions, Ghosh said.
In a rally on Saturday in East Midnapore, Vijayvargiya had taunted Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee saying that the “Trinamool is neither a party of Mamata Banerjee nor of its old leaders. The party is under the control of a nephew.’’
The TMC spokesperson claimed that the BJP is attacking the youth leader since it is afraid of him.
"Kailash Vijayvargiya was talking of bhaipo. I dare him to take the name of the person he is referring to instead of using such terms. Either you take the persons name or stop spreading lies," Ghosh said, without naming the TMC youth leader.
Political slugfest are getting uglier with each day as the Trinamool and the BJP are going all out in the run up to the 2021 Bengal elections.
Ghosh, an accused in Saradha chit fund scam and presently on bail, said he had written to the CBI director demanding his face-to-face interrogation with BJP’s national vice president Mukul Roy, who was summoned in connection with the scam.
"Vijayvargiyaji, your party sloganed saying ‘Bhag Mukul Bhag’ in 2015 and now the same person is your party’s national vice-president,” said Ghosh, adding that Roy should be arrested in the Narada sting case.
The leader, who was then considered number two in the TMC, quit the party and joined the BJP in 2017.
He was made the party's national vice-president in September.
“Is the BJP a washing machine that whoever joins it becomes a clean person?”
Reacting to Ghosh’s allegation, BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh said, "Everyone in the state knows the name of the nephew. He is keen to hear it? Let the time come, we will utter it.’’
He also said that the BJP would not have won 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal had the party been afraid.
In the press meet, the TMC spokesperson asked if the son of a doctor cannot become a doctor or the son of a lawyer cannot take up his father's profession and whether anyone from the family of a politician cannot become a politician.
Ghosh claimed that the BJP leadership is targeting is the cynosure of the eyes of youth and students of the state and said that he had won the Lok Sabha elections twice with a huge number of votes.
Drawing a comparison with Rajiv Gandhi, he said that BJP is afraid of the young TMC leader just as it was of the Congress president and former prime minister.
"You are indulging in personal attacks since you are afraid of the young Turk," he said.
Without naming him, Ghosh referred to BJP MP Arjun Singh's claim on Saturday that five TMC MPs were keen to join the saffron party and said that it is an attempt to hide the possibility of four BJP MPs switching over to the TMC.
West Bengal cops be kept away from 2021 polls: Vijayvargiya
Alleging the collapse of law and order in Bengal, Vijayvargiya on Sunday demanded that local police be kept away from the next year's assembly elections to ensure that the exercise is conducted in a free and fair manner.
Speaking to reporters here, the BJP general secretary who is the party's in-charge for West Bengal, also said that instances of "infiltrations" are on the rise in the eastern state.
"Law and order machinery has collapsed in West Bengal. Infiltrators are pouring in. Contract killing of political workers is on. In these challenging times, we have asked the Central government to impose President's rule or the Election Commission should ensure that people cast their vote without fear," he added.
Vijayvargiya, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, said representatives of the EC had assured after their visit to Kolkata that Central forces would be deployed in adequate numbers during the upcoming elections.
"But we have demanded that the state police be kept off the elections given that the police force is politicised (politically-biased) and criminalised as well," the BJP leader alleged.
The former Madhya Pradesh minister said the BJP would contest the assembly elections, due in April-May next year, against Mamta Banerjee-led TMC on its own, and will win more than 50 per cent of votes.
"The BJP doesn't need to forge any alliance in West Bengal," he added.
After having a limited presence in the politically polarised state for decades, the BJP has emerged as the main rival to the ruling Trinamool Congress.
It won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in the 2019 general elections.
(With PTI Inputs)