Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to contest against him from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, reported PTI.
Banerjee also said that he would retire from active politics if Shah won against him in the polls. The home minister is the Lok Sabha MP from Gandhinagar in Gujarat and is seeking re-election from the state capital. Follow full coverage of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
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The Trinamool Congress listed the contest from the Diamon Harbour seat as among three options for Shah to make him quit active politics.
“If you want Abhishek Banerjee to leave active politics, then I would like you to fulfil any of the three options I am providing you today. You release the state’s due of ₹1,64,000 crore and I will retire within 24 hours. The second option is to release the funds of the PM Awas Yojana,” Banerjee said at an election rally for TMC’s Mathurapur candidate Bapi Halder.
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“The nomination for the Diamond Harbour constituency is yet to start. The third option: you (Shah) contest from here and defeat me. I will leave politics forever,” the party’s national general secretary added.
He also responded to Shah’s allegation that Mamata Banerjee wants him to be the next chief minister of West Bengal.
“You wish to make your son the BCCI president. Not all are like you. You have never been part of any agitation. You are a person who was jailed. We do not need to learn any moral values and ideology from you,” Banerjee said, according to PTI. “You are in politics for your benefit. We do not do that. We are in politics to address the cause of the people.”
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He also described BJP leaders as “outsiders” and “migratory birds” in the state and urged the public not to vote for them.
Banerjee also trained guns at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who also campaigned in West Bengal during the day, calling him the “biggest failure as the CM of UP”.
“It was under his rule that brutal incidents such as Unnao, Hathras and Lakhimpur Kheri took place. Five farmers were mowed down by the son of Union minister Ajay Teni Mishra under Yogi Adityanath’s government. We don’t need to learn law and order from him,” he said.
