BJP's Suvendu Adhikari Dares Trinamool To Hold Large Public Meeting In Bengal Town

In his first public meeting at Nandigram in West Bengal today since joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Suvendu Adhikari dared the ruling Trinamool party, to which he formerly belonged, to organise a big public meeting in Purbo Medinipur area.

He said the BJP will hold public meeting at Nandigram on January 8 which will see the gathering of one lakh people and dared Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to hold a rally as big as it will.

"We don't back out after announcing a programme like some others," he said at a meeting after a road show at Nandigram, the epicentre of the anti-farmland acquisition movement in West Bengal in 2007.

Mr Adhikari was referring to the proposed January 7 meeting in the area by Ms Banerjee which got postponed on Monday as a top district TMC leader tested coronavirus positive.

"They (TMC) are saying it (meeting) will take place later on. If they organise the meeting later on, we will again hold another meeting in same area afterwards," he said.

He added: "The office of the bhaipo (nephew) is prodding some people to tear posters and attack our men here. He will get a befitting reply."

Mr Adhikari, who did not take any names, was apparently referring to TMC youth wing president and party MP Abhisek Banerjee, who is a nephew of Mamata Banerjee.

Mr Adhikari, alleged that some people who were coming to his road show were attacked on the way by a party. "We will not take such attacks silently though we believe in the philosophy of peace," he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)