Trinamool MP Abhishek Banerjee’s convoy attacked in Tripura, allegedly by BJP activists

Miscreants, allegedly Bharatiya Janata Party activists, attacked Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s car with sticks and shouted “go back” slogans when he was on his way to the Tripureshwari temple at Udaipur in Gomati district of Tripura on August 2. Time and again in the journey Banerjee faced protests from BJP activists.

Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool Congress all India general secretary and an MP, addressing the media in Agartala on August 2.

Miscreants, allegedly Bharatiya Janata Party activists, attacked Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee’s car with sticks and shouted “go back” slogans when he was on his way to the Tripureshwari temple at Udaipur in Gomati district of Tripura on August 2. Time and again in the journey Banerjee faced protests from BJP activists. “They cannot stop us in this manner. Mamata Banerjee’s party is like iron. The more they do this, the stronger will be our resolve to put an end to the darkness in Tripura and herald a new dawn with our development work,” said Abhishek Banerjee, who is all-India general secretary of the Trinamool Congress and is visiting Tripura.

The Trinamool Congress, which has decided to expand its base outside West Bengal, is focussing on BJP-ruled Tripura to emerge as a challenger to the saffron party, which came to power in 2018 defeating the 25-year-old Communist Party of India (Marxist) government. Issuing a challenge to the BJP, Abhishek Banerjee said at a media conference, “Write it down, in the next one and half years the Trinamool Congress will form a government in Tripura.” The Assembly election in the State is due in 2023. Alleging that the Tripura government is “remote-controlled” by the central leadership of the BJP, Abhishek Banerjee said, “I do not blame Biplab babu (Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb), because he’s being made a sacrificial lamb. He is controlled by Delhi…. What the people of Tripura want, makes no difference to them. They will do whatever the leaders of Delhi and the leaders of North Bengal tell them to do. They [the BJP] tried to do the same in Bengal but they fell flat on their faces,” said Abhishek Banerjee.

Referring to the instances of violence in Tripura, he claimed that since the Trinamool came to power in West Bengal in 2011, “no one can point to a single instance when a CPI(M) leader or a party member has been targeted or attacked.” He proclaimed that by the end of the year, the Trinamool Congress will have fully functional committees in all 3,324 booths in Tripura. “I will return in 15 days and announce the formation of the State unit of the party – who will be the president, who will be the general secretary… I am challenging Biplab babu to try and stop me from coming…. I will come and we will build a new Tripura,” said Abhishek Banerjee.