Abhishek Banerjee called Suvendu Adhikari a "turncoat" who had sold his spine to the BJP.
For days, "tolabaj bhaipo" or extortionist nephew has been a BJP punch line in its campaign against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ahead of the state elections. On Sunday, her nephew Abhishek Banerjee took the "tolabaj" bull by the horns.
At a rally at his parliamentary constituency Diamond Harbour, Mr Banerjee, without taking his name, hit back at Suvendu Adhikari, BJP's latest recruit, and said it was the Trinamool defector who was the extortionist, seen on tape taking wads of cash in the Narada scandal that broke in 2016.
Suvendu Adhikari is not only named in the Narada scandal but in the Saradha ponzi scam too. On 19th December, when he joined the BJP, Mr Adhikari had ended his maiden BJP speech with a slogan calling for the ouster of the "extortionist nephew" - a reference to Mr Banerjee's alleged links to criminal syndicates in the state.
Comparing Mr Adhikari to an asymptomatic COVID-19 patient who "betrayed" the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and was "sabotaging" it from within, Abhishek Banerjee issued a challenge that if there was any proof of financial misdeeds on his part, he was willing to be hanged to death.
"There were some people in the party who were like asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. We tracked their activities and identified them. We are happy to get rid of such viruses who had betrayed the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and had been sabotaging the party since the past few months," the lawmaker said.
Suvendu Adhikari, who held a roadshow at Datan in West Midnapore district on Sunday, repeated his December 19 slogan, calling for Abhishek Banerjee's ouster almost at the same time that the Trinamool leader attacked Mr Adhikari as the real extortionist.
Mr Banerjee said, "The turncoat from TMC sells his spine, he attacks me at Medinipur. He says tolabaj bhaipo hatao. But in Narada scam, it is you who is seen taking cash wrapped in a newspaper. You are the tolabaj. And you dare to say tolabaj bhaipo hatao?"
"It is your name in the Sarada scam. You are the tolabaj. And you dare to say tolabaj bhaipo hatao? My friend, I am neither in Sarada nor in Narada. ED (Enforcement Directorate), CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) will get nothing by tracking me. Do what you please," he said.