Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J.P. Nadda on Wednesday targeted the Trinamool Congress (TMC), calling it a “Phishi-Bhaipho (aunt-nephew) party“, and pointed out that all “regional parties have turned into family parties”.
The “Phishi-Bhaipho” reference was to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and party general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee.
Mr. Nadda, who is on a two-day trip to West Bengal, said Opposition parties from Jammu and Kashmir in the North to Karnataka and Telangana in the South to West Bengal in the East to Maharashtra in the West were “all regional parties being run by families”.
“TMC has no principles or policies, it only has syndicates,” Mr. Nadda said in address to a workers’ convention at the National Library in the city. In an apparent attempt to boost the flagging morale of the BJP workers, the party president said the “BJP will come to power through democratic means”. He cited the example of Rashtriya Janata Dal ( RJD) president Lalu Prasad Yadav. “About 15 years ago, it was difficult to imagine that Lalu Prasad Yadav would be out of power in Bihar. Today I read that Lalu-Ji will be appearing before a court… In the years to come ‘Pishi Bhaipho’ will also have to appear before the courts,” the BJP president said.
Mr. Nadda said the Trinamool Congress government was accusing the Centre of not releasing funds for MNREGA. The truth was that the State government had not submitted the accounts of the scheme for the last three years.
Earlier this month, the Trinamool Congress had organised rallies across the State in protest against non- release of funds under the 100 day work scheme. Ms. Banerjee accused the Centre of not having released funds since December 2021, which amounted to ₹6,000 crore. The BJP president accused the State government of changing the names of Centrally sponsored schemes and running them as its own.
“In politics, there is nothing static... things change. The future belongs to the BJP,” Mr. Nadda said in an apparent reference to the party’s defeat defeat in the 2021 Assembly elections. He advised party workers not to be worried about political developments around them and have a broader perspective of what was happening in the country.
The TMC leadership called the BJP president a liar.
“BJP President is a liar. He fails to understand that @aitcofficial under the supreme leadership of Ms. Mamata Banerjee is a time tested Party of 10-crore greater family of people of Bengal. All sinister designs to divide Bengal shall be thwarted by these great people led by Didi,” TMC national spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said.
