West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee alone can bring change in 2024: Abhishek Banerjee

KOLKATA: “If anyone uses the name of TMC or my name to harass you, lodge a police complaint... If anyone intimidates you saying he is well connected, tell me and I will throw him out. No dadagiri will be tolerated,” Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress’ national general secretary and CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, said on Saturday at a closed-door interaction with 80-odd Hindi-speaking voters from the business community.
He was campaigning for the CM ahead of the September 30 Bhowanipore by-election and stressed that she was the only one who could bring change in Delhi in 2024.
Buoyed by former Union minister Babul Supriyo’s entry to the partyfold, Abhishek walked into Lakshmi Narayan temple on Sarat Bose Road at 6pm and performed a brief puja. It followed the by-invitation-only meeting, which was held in the first floor hall adjoining the temple. More residents were accommodated in the ground floor hall where LED screens aired the campaigning.
“B stands for Bhowanipore and B also stands for Bharat. If Bhowanipore wins, Bharat will win too,” Abhishek kicked off his interaction in English. The next 40 minutes saw him speak in Hindi to woo the non-Bengali business community.
He said the voting on September 30 “is not an ordinary vote”, but one the entire country was looking forward to. “From UP to Haryana, people are coming to us and saying Mamata Banerjee alone can bring change in Delhi. Today, Babul Supriyo has also joined us. Wait and watch the level our party will reach in the next three months; the game hasn’t started yet,” he told the attendees.
Abhishek said in 2024, it would not be a fight between the BJP and the Trinamool, but one between the BJP and the people of India. “People even came from Gujarat to meet me. There is no state that has not found hope in Mamata Banerjee. If there is anyone who can defeat the BJP, it is Mamata Banerjee. It will not be TMC versus BJP in the next general elections, but BJP versus the people of India,” he said.
On the issues of cut money and extortion — two of the major allegations made by the BJP against Trinamool ahead of the assembly polls — Abhishek asked his audience not to be afraid of goons and extortionists, and write directly to him if there was any case of harassment. He even cited an example of how he had recently rescued a businessman from the clutches of an extortionist who was allegedly using the party’s name.
“If anyone uses the party’s name or my name to harass you, lodge a complaint and then meet these leaders (pointing to party seniors like Subrata Mukherjee, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay and Subrata Bakshi). You can also write to me. I will throw them out. No dadagiri will be tolerated,” he said.
Replying to a couple of questions on Centre-state non-cooperation, Abhishek finished the meeting on the janeu (sacred thread worn by Brahmins) note, the second leader to do so after Congress’ Rahul Gandhi. “The BJP has only three issues to talk about — Hindus, Muslims and Pakistan. I am a janeu-dhari Brahmin and I don’t need a certificate of Hinduism from them,” he said, signing off with the plea to come out in large numbers and vote on September 30.