Suvendu Adhikari is set to face off Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram.
Days after his Bangladesh jibe, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has now said the Trinamool Congress is keen on turning West Bengal into another Kashmir. The party's Nandigram candidate for the upcoming state Assembly polls also cited Syama Prasad Mookerjee to say that if not for the late Jan Sangh founder, India would have been an Islamic country like Bangladesh. A former close aide of state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he will now face her in the same constituency this election.
Speaking yesterday at a rally in Muchipara, Behala, Mr Adhikari said, "If Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was not there, this country would have been an Islamic country and we would be living in Bangladesh. If they (TMC) came back to power, West Bengal will become Kashmir."
A few weeks ago, on February 14, he had accused the ruling Trinamool Congress of attempting to turn West Bengal into Bangladesh by importing the "Jai Bangla" slogan.
"The 'khela hobe' slogan was coined by Narayanganj (in Bangladesh) MP Shamim Osman four years ago. TMC wants to turn West Bengal into Bangladesh that is why they have imported 'Jai Bangla' slogan. Our slogan is — 'Bharat mata ki jai' and 'Jai Shri Ram'," he had said speaking to media persons in Siliguri, Darjeeling.
Reacting to his latest jibe on Kashmir, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, "But according to you BJP-wallas, Kashmir has become paradise after August 2019 so what's wrong with West Bengal becoming Kashmir?"
He was referring to the 2019 nullification of Article 370 of the constitution that had bestowed special status on the former state that was also turned into a Union Territory along with that move.
The campaign for the West Bengal election till now has been extremely vitriolic, with such exchange of barbs and name-calling being regular features. The elections for the 294 Assembly seats will begin on March 27 and proceed through eight phases till almost the end of April.