Trinamool lawmaker Abhishek Banerjee called Mamata Banerjee as the only real opposition in the country
Nearly six months after a car accident, Trinamool lawmaker and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee returned to active politics. The youngest Lok Sabha member was seriously injured after his car hit a truck on the National Highway 2 near Singur in October last year.
In a mega rally held in his constituency Diamond Harbour, which saw a crowd of an estimated 1,30,000 people, Mr Banerjee, 29, attacked the opposition.
Singling out the BJP as aggressively as his aunt, he called them the 'Bangla Jalao Party" and alleged that it was spreading communalism in the state.
"Bengal has never knelt before anyone. Come what may, we will not lose to Delhi. Issue-less Congress, characterless CPI (M) and directionless and greedy for power BJP have come together. They are attacking Mamata Banerjee after coming together. If something happens they threaten us with the CBI and the ED," Mr Banerjee told the crowd at the SDO Ground at Diamond Harbour.
If Mamata Banerjee had sounded the battle cry against the BJP, her nephew - the youth wing president of Trinamool - took it a step further.
Calling his aunt as the only real opposition in the country, he dismissed the AIADMK, the Samajwadi Party and the RJD as parties that could be forced to toe the BJP line.
"They do not know. This is not the Samajwadi Party; this is not AIADMK; this is not Bihar's RJD, and this is not Nitish Kumar's party. This is the people's voice and that voice is Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress," Mr Banerjee said.
Dismissing Mr Banerjee as an upstart, West Bengal BJP President Dilip Ghosh said, "Because they are scared they keep chanting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's name everywhere. We are winning elections and they are scared. Yes, we know PM Modi. He is the leader who delivers. Our leader says go and give your best wherever there is an election. Their leader says go and give your best whereever there is corruption. That's the difference between them and us."
If the crowd was anything to go by, then Abhishek Banerjee's return to active politics can be termed successful. But the real challenge for Trinamool Congress is stopping BJP's rise, which has emerged as the main challenger in West Bengal. It is here that Mr Banerjee will have to share responsibility with Mamata Banerjee to prove his political mettle.