West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Friday appealed to minority community voters in Nandigram to forge ties with the BJP, describing the October 6 bypoll as an “auspicious occasion” to build a friendship with the party.
Addressing voters at Birulia Bazar in Nandigram II development block, an area traditionally considered vulnerable for the BJP because of its sizeable Muslim population, Adhikari said continuing to turn away from the saffron party would no longer benefit the community as the Trinamool Congress had “ceased to exist”.
“This is the best time to extend your hand of friendship towards us. October 6 is an auspicious day. You won’t get a better opportunity to hold our hands as friends. Yes, we chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’, but we don’t force you to do it. You can choose not to and just say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” Adhikari said.
Adhikari was campaigning for BJP candidate Hasirani Rath, the mother of Chandranath Rath, his former personal assistant who was killed in a shooting on the outskirts of Kolkata on May 6, a day after the Assembly election results were declared.
Referring to the murder, Adhikari alleged that Chandranath’s shooters were from Uttar Pradesh and had been employed by people from Munger in Bihar. He claimed Chandranath’s close aide had arranged the killing and delivered Rs 2 crore for the contract, which he said was supplied by the “bhaipo” (nephew) gang.
“The CBI has already made arrests and has completed 90 per cent of the job. Only the Diamond Harbour company remains to be formally linked to the crime,” he said, in an apparent reference to TMC’s Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Adhikari said there should be a “democratic retaliation” on the EVMs on October 6 for Chandranath’s murder.
He also claimed that the TMC’s name and symbol had been erased from West Bengal, referring to the Election Commission’s decision to allot separate names and symbols to the factions led by Mamata Banerjee and Arup Roy for the bypolls.
“When I went to collect the certificate of the winning candidate from Nandigram, I had said that there would be no name or symbol of the TMC. The aunt-nephew duo’s dry grass and twin flower symbol no longer exist. The chhinnamool (rootless, an apparent wordplay on Trinamool) people tried hard on the EVMs. The people have driven Mamata Banerjee’s party out,” Adhikari said.
He said the TMC, which had received significant support from minority voters in Nandigram in previous elections, had become non-existent after splitting into two parties with new names and symbols.
Taking a swipe at the TMC leadership, Adhikari also referred to an unnamed “big thief”, saying smaller accused persons had already gone to jail.
“Smaller fries like Sumit Roy (Abhishek Banerjee’s PA) have gone to jail. When will the big thief go? I assure you that the big thief too will also go to jail,” he said.
Adhikari urged voters to ensure that all rival candidates forfeited their security deposits in the bypoll, alleging that there was “no end to the sins and tortures committed by the TMC”.
He also mocked TMC candidate Sanchita Dey Pradhan, claiming she had already “withdrawn her own nomination and gone flying like a kite”.
Highlighting the development work undertaken by his government during its first five months, Adhikari said he would now provide three times the assistance he had offered previously.
He promised to restore train services on the Nandigram-Deshapran-Bajkul route, saying he had earlier promised residents that he would get them on trains. He also indicated that he would take responsibility for restoring the Odisha Coast Canal and improving the rural economy.
“It is my duty to bring back the migrant workers of the state and to provide jobs to the youth,” Adhikari said, adding that recruitment examinations were being conducted by the Public Service Commission.
Adhikari also accused the previous TMC government of pursuing a “politics of appeasement”. He said his government had “rectified” laws governing OBC reservations and withdrawn a petition pending before the Supreme Court.
On recruitment, he said the government had published the merit list for 12,000 police constables transparently and that there had been no protests over the process.
“I will hand over appointment letters to the recruits on October 11,” he said.
Adhikari further said the BJP government would provide appointments to one lakh people within a year while maintaining norms and transparency.
“Start counting from May 9, when I took oath as the chief minister in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
“I will bring out the report card after one year to show that what you (the Mamata Banerjee government) could not in 15 years, we can achieve in one year,” he said.
Adhikari, who represented Nandigram as an MLA from 2016, assured residents that he would work more for the constituency than he had done previously.
The Nandigram bypoll, along with the Rejinagar bypoll in Murshidabad, will be held on October 6. The Nandigram seat was vacated after Adhikari resigned from the Assembly following his victory from Bhabanipur in the April Assembly polls. Counting of votes is scheduled for October 9.
