Hours after Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee announced that she will fight the upcoming Assembly elections from Nandigram, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari accepted her challenge, asserting he will defeat her in the election or quit politics.
The TMC turncoat, however, said the final decision to field candidates will be taken by the BJP leadership after thorough discussion and not in an arbitrary way like in the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Mamata sprang a surprise earlier in the day when she declared she will contest the assembly election from Nandigram, the seat held by political heavyweight Suvendu.
“If I am fielded by my party from Nandigram, I will defeat her by a margin of at least 50,000 votes or I will quit politics,” he asserted.
Adhikari, however, said unlike the TMC, which is run “autocratically” by Mamata and her nephew Abhishek, in BJP the candidates are decided after discussion and it was for the party to take a call on his candidature.
“I don’t know from where I will be fielded, whether I will be fielded,” he said, addressing BJP workers after a 3km road show.
He said Mamata remembers Nandigram only before elections, and accused her of giving extension four times to an IPS officer involved in the Nandigram firing.
Mamata, Suvendu alleged, was playing with the sentiments of the people of Nandigram. “That will not work this time and her party will be democratically dumped into the Bay of Bengal.”
