Suvendu Adhikari quit the Trinamool Congress and joined BJP last week
In his first rally after he switched sides from the Trinamool Congress to the BJP, former West Bengal minister and former Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari called for the "parivartan of parivartan"
On the dais with BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh at Ketugram in Burdwan district, Mr Adhikari said, "We will defeat them. We will win. We will build a new Bengal, a golden Bengal. We want a parivartan of parivartan."
The word, parivartan, was Mamata Banerjee's rallying cry in her campaign to oust the Left in 2011.
The Trinamool Congress and Mr Adhikari are set for competitive rallies in the next couple of days. Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy and senior minister Firhad Hakim are in Mr Adhikari's home turf, Kanthi in East Midnapore district tomorrow, for a rally.
Mr Adhikari will do a road show there on Thursday. There are concerns about the two sides entangling in a clashes.
Mr Adhikari's exit has been dismissed as "good riddance of a liability" by the Trinamool Congress, which has challenged him to contest the 2021 election from his old constituency, Nandigram.
Sougata Roy, who had tried to broker peace with Mr Adhikari before he finally quit, said, "Suvendu will be remembered as the Mir Jaffar, the Jagat Seth. He has betrayed the party."
In his fiery speech at Ketugram, Mr Adhikari said, "They are calling me a Mir Jaffer but what about them? They betrayed Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee. If the BJP had not supported Trinamool 1998 onwards, the Trinamool would have disappeared by now."
Mr Roy's response was cutting. "Mamata Banerjee left Congress to form her new party. Suvendu did not have the guts," he said.
Another thorny issue Mr Adhikari raised at his rally was Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee's nephew and Trinamool Congress MP, who the BJP and Mr Adhikari address as "bhaipo" or "bhatija" and accuse him of corruption.
"He has already overseen the cow smuggling racket and coal theft. If the Trinamool comes back to power, they will even steal kidneys," Mr Adhikari said, and called for "bhaipo hatoa" or "oust the nephew".
Sougata Roy said, "When they met during the talks before he quit Trinamool, Mr Suvendu told Abhishek that he had no problems with him, that he realised Abhishek never spoke ill of him. And now he is saying such things."
In Malda district in North Bengal, several posters of Mr Adhikari have been blackened by Trinamool Congress supporters. Trinamool Congress MLA from Gajole in Malda district, Dipali Biswas, joined the BJP on December 19, along with Mr Adhikari.