Mamata will win by huge margin in Bhabanipur, says BJP leader Rajib Banerjee

Kolkata, Sep 21 (IANS) Embarrassing the Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP leader Rajib Banerjee said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will win with a huge margin and it would have been better if the party had not fielded any candidate against her.

"The people gave her a mandate and she has come back to power with 213 seats. She is contesting from Bhabanipur and the Congress has decided not to put up any candidate against her. We cannot or should not ignore the people's verdict and the people want her to be the chief minister of the state. She is going to win by a huge margin in Bhabanipur. It would have been the right gesture if the BJP had also stayed away from the election. They should not have fielded any candidate against her," the former Trinamool Congress minister who switched over to the BJP just before the assembly polls said.

Banerjee who lost in this election to the Trinamool Congress was also critical about Suvendu Adhikari's approach towards the chief minister. Speaking to the media, Banerjee said, "People brought her back to power with 213 seats and so it is not decent to speak foul about that person. To make comments like 'Fufu', 'Kahlu', 'Begum' has created a wrong impression about us. One should be careful when speaking about a leader of her stature."

Banerjee was speaking about the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari who accused Mamata Banerjee of divisive and partisan politics.

Speaking on an issue like religious division, the BJP leader said, "I have occasionally warned the party not to follow religious lines because religious divisive politics will not work in West Bengal but the party has not paid any heed. The party has suffered for that."

Rajib Banerjee was a member of the earlier West Bengal cabinet. But just before the assembly elections he joined the BJP and contested from Domjur assembly constituency, where he was the MLA earlier, but was defeated. Soon after his defeat, he became a rebel and started making anti-party statements and avoiding party meetings.

Banerjee was accused of meeting Trinamool Congress All India General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and several Trinamool leaders and he was show-caused for that. According to a senior BJP leader Rajib Banerjee was show-caused twice for his anti-party activities but he did not reply.