Saradha chit fund case: Trinamool leader Dinesh Trivedi called Mamata Banerjee Jhansi ki Rani
Mamata Banerjee was compared to mythical demons "Taadaka" and "Surasa" from the epic Ramayana by BJP leaders as the Bengal Chief Minister sat on a protest against the central government over a CBI team trying to question the Kolkata police chief over two Ponzi scams. A member of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress retaliated by comparing her to "Jhansi Ki Rani", the fearless queen who fought the British forces.
A team of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officers who arrived at Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar's home to question him, were blocked by the city police and detained briefly before being released. The CBI says Mr Kumar, who had headed a Special Investigation Team into the Saradha and Rose Valley chit fund scams, had ignored its summons over two years. Several leaders of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress have been charged or arrested in the two cases.
"When we were young and went to watch Ram Leela, there was a scene in which all the seers would try to perform a yagna (ritual) and Taadaka used to come and obstruct them by destroying everything. That's the role that Mamata Banerjee is playing," said Haryana minister Anil Vij.
"She keeps blocking everybody, be it Amit Shah (BJP president) or Yogi Adityanath (Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister)...She blocks their helicopter from landing, so she is doing the same thing Taadaka used to do," said the minister.
Another BJP leader, Surendra Singh from Uttar Pradesh's Ballia, had the entire "cast" in place as he responded to the Bengal Chief Minister denying permission to Yogi Adityanath's chopper to land for a rally. "Surasa blocked the entry of Lord Hanuman in Lanka. Mamata Banerjee is inspired by her. If Modi-ji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) is like Lord Ram then Yogi-ji is like Lord Hanuman," said the BJP leader.
The BJP-Mamata Banerjee fight for Bengal has intensified just months before the national election, due by May.
A Trinamool Congress leader, Dinesh Trivedi, said: "Mamata will not be bullied. You must have heard about Jhansi Ki Rani..."