Mamata Banerjee and Suvendu Adhikari are pitted against each other in the Nandigram assembly seat
Mounting an attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Suvendu Adhikari on Friday said speaking against Prime Minister Narendra Modi means speaking against "democracy" and "Bharat Mata".
"You will have to take Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vaccine against COVID. He is an elected Prime Minister. Speaking against him is like speaking against democracy. Speaking against him is speaking against Bharat Mata. Pakistan and Bangladesh do not have vaccine, so you will have to take Prime Minister Modi's vaccine," Mr Adhikari told ANI.
Mr Adhikari's remark comes against the backdrop of Ms Banerjee's public address at Egra and Patashpur where she criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over several issues including COVID-19 vaccination.
Ms Banerjee also called Mr Adhikari, a former minister in Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, "Mir Zafar" as he joined the rival camp BJP in December last year.
Notably, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Mr Adhikari are pitted against each other in the Nandigram assembly seat in the upcoming elections.
Mr Adhikari had earlier said that BJP will defeat Ms Banerjee by over 50,000 votes from Nandigram.
The polling in Nandigram will take place on April 1 in the second phase of the upcoming Assembly elections.The BJP and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) are at loggerheads in poll-bound West Bengal. The top leadership of the BJP has been holding public meetings and roadshows across the state in recent months.
Elections to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly will be held in eight phases starting from March 27 with the final round of voting taking place on April 29. The counting of votes will take place on May 2.