By the time West Bengal elections arrive, Mamata will be left all alone: Amit Shah

Shah's assertions came on a day Suvendu Adhikari and nine MLAs of different parties and a TMC MP joined the BJP

Throwing a direct challenge to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that by the time the 2021 Assembly election was held she would be the only one left in the TMC.

Shah’s comment comes on a day when the BJP dealt the most severe blow to the TMC by roping in six of its sitting MLAs including heavyweight leader and former Minister Suvendu Adhikari. A sitting TMC MP also joined the saffron party along with a few MLAs from other parties.

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“This is just the beginning. By the time the next Assembly election will be held you (Mamata Banerjee) will be the only one left in the TMC,” said Shah. He was addressing a well attended BJP rally in West Medinipur district.

He also said that the TMC leaders were leaving the party in large numbers to join BJP voluntarily without any kind of pressure. Shah said that the TMC supremo was worried to see the growing public support for the BJP in Bengal.

Also read | Heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari joins BJP; 9 MLAs, 1 MP also change sides

“You (Mamata) never imagined the kind of tsunami you saw today. This is only the beginning,” said Shah.

Shah also said that BJP would come to power in Bengal in the next Assembly election by winning more than 200 seats.

He said that “honest people” from the TMC,CPI(M) and Congress joined the BJP under Adhikari’s leadership to work under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Refuting the Chief Minister’s allegation that the BJP was trying to engineer defection in her party, Shah asked was not it defection when she founded the TMC after leaving Congress in 1998.

“Senior party leaders are leaving the TMC and Mamata didi is accusing the BJP of trying to engineer defections in her party. We have nothing to do with engineering defection,” said Shah.

Accusing the TMC of indulging in corruption the Union Home Minister said that the party came to power in Bengal with the slogan of “Maa, Mati, Manush (Mother, soil and the people) but it lapsed into “extortion, corruption and nepotism.” He further alleged that TMC leaders resorted to corrupt practices with the relief fund following the cyclone Amphan.