Kolkata, Feb 17 (PTI) Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, was greeted with pro-Mamata Banerjee slogans by Trinamool Congress workers on Thursday during his door to door campaign for the saffron party candidates in Contai Municipality area of Purba Medinipur district.
Election to this civic body and more than 100 others in the state will be held on February 27.
Adhikari was campaigning in ward no 21 when a group of TMC workers started raising slogans hailing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, an MP.
The BJP leader, who left the TMC in December 2020 ahead of the assembly election and joined the saffron party, stopped and asked one of the ruling party activists what it was all about.
The TMC supporters did not reply and continued to raise slogans. The Nandigram MLA then resumed campaigning.
"We did not obstruct Suvendu Adhikari, we did not raise slogans against him. We only raised slogans in support of our leader. It is Suvendu Adhikari who makes provocative gestures everywhere. We did not fall into his trap," Sanatan Dolui, a local TMC activist, told reporters later.
The incident is almost a repeat of what had happened on February 14 in Kolkata. TMC supporters raised slogans against Adhikari and in favour of Mamata Banerjee when he had gone to Bhabanipur area in the city to pay tribute to security personnel killed in terrorist attack in Kashmir on that day in 2019.
While canvassing for BJP candidates on Thursday, Adhikari said,
"This is my Duare Suvendu (Suvendu at doorstep) campaign. Please don't compare it with the false Duare Sarkar campaign of the Mamata Banerjee government. I don't believe in falsehood," he said.
He was referring to the 'Duare Sarkar', a public outreach programme of the West Bengal government.
Purba Medinipur district TMC president Tarun Maity claimed that Adhikari's campaigning will not cut much ice with the electorate as the people of Contai are not with him.
