Mamata breathes fire on BJP, dares it to jail any TMC worker

Malda (West Bengal), May 4 (IANS) In a fierce attack on the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the party of "maligning" her state and using obscene language against her.

She said if even one of her party workers is sent to jail, in reaction a lakh of BJP workers will be put behind bars in the state.

"I want to know one thing from the BJP. I want a clarification. I am a citizen of this country and I have every right to know. A BJP leader from Indore for the last two days has been saying that on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's instructions, (Trinamool MPs) Tapas Pal and Sudip Bandyopadhyay were arrested and others will be arrested. Is he God or Allah? Is he CBI chief or director? Or has the PM whispered these things in his ears," Banerjee said here in an apparent reference to BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya.

"I dare them... if you send anyone from Trinamool Congress to jail, then the people will send one lakh of your workers to jail. We also have several cases ready against them but we do not indulge in vendetta politics," she said at a public meeting here.

Her statement comes in the wake of Vijayvargiya's comments that Trinamool leaders involved in the Narada sting operation case and Saradha chit fund scam will have to go to jail "very soon".

The Trinamool Congress supremo also lashed out at the BJP, which claimed on Wednesday that tribal couple Raju and Geeta Mahali who joined the Trinamool had been abducted and forcibly made to join the party.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), the party went on abusing us all day. Even their ministers are abusing us. They are saying there is 'reckless violence'. What words? I told (Trinamool spokesperson and Rajya Sabha leader) Derek O'Brien 'what is this?' In Bengal, people are at peace and are happiest; there is no injustice, no trouble; They (BJP) have no work and are slandering the state. I am telling the Delhi leaders, if anyone maligns the state then there will be no bigger enemy than me," Banerjee said.

She was reacting to Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who had said that for many years West Bengal had been a victim of fear and violence under the Left parties and "now, it is a victim of fear and reckless violence of the TMC".

Banerjee also flayed a BJP leader who compared her to an "eunuch."

"I saw on TV. I am ashamed to say that he was saying 'Is Mamata Banerjee a woman, or a man, or a eunuch?'. Just imagine. This is the language they are using. I am ashamed that I was born here. So much audacity and arrogance they have. How dare they question my birth, my mother, my father, my religion? How arrogant of them. Don't listen to a word they say... humble them. You (BJP) will not be here after 2019 Lok Sabha polls," Banerjee said.

Addressing a street corner protest, Bharatiya Janata Party's observer for West Midnapore district Shaymapada Mondal said on Sunday: "Today, you cannot understand whether Mamata Banerjee is a female or a male. Those who have been eunuchs in trains and buses, I will say our Didi (as Banerjee is called) has become an eunuch."

Banerjee defended her party leaders, Firhad Hakim, Subhendu Adhikari and Mukul Roy, whose names figured in the Narada sting video footage saying they hail from well-to-do families.

"They do not need a lakh from Narada," she said.

The BJP ramped up its attack on the Trinamool.

"The public in Bengal has become wiser. They understand everything..

"BJP is a democratic party, the Trinamool is not. They have sucked the blood of the poor through corruption," Vijayvargiya responded, adding he is not scared of all the blustering about Trinamool having cases ready against them.