Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamatha Banerjee accuses Nandigram BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari and his father Sisir Adhikari as “traitors” and “thiefs”, who were former TMC leaders.

She also alleged that they are now claiming credit for the work that her Government had done. Speaking at a rally in East Medinipur’s Kanthi town, she accused them of siphoning money meant for teachers and conspiring against her Government since 2014. Later, she even called herself “an ass” for not recognizing people who would eventually cheat her. She called them as gaddars and ‘Mir Jafars'”, she also said that “At one point, I had great respect for them. I used to love them.

I have painted a picture of a goddess in their house. She said her leg still in cast. Mir Zafar was a close aide and commander of Bengal’s last independent Nawab. He betrayed the Nawab, Siraj-ud Daula, to the British, an act that turned his name into a quasi-synonym for traitor in the region.

“They have invited the BJP here and they are saying they were in touch with the BJP since 2014. Which means they sabotaged us,” she said, evoking thunderous applause from the audience. Sisir Adhikari joined in BJP in the presence of Union Minister Amit Shah at Egra in East Medinipur on Sunday, putting halt to the speculation joining into the BJP. His son Suvendu Adhikari had preceded him by a few months and is by now the BJP’s chief Mamata baiter, even contesting the Nandigram constituency against her in the upcoming state polls.

Mamatha Banerjee accused the both father and son Sisir and Suvendu Adhikari’s are thiefs, “Ask the gaddars how much money they have taken. You say Trinamool is a thief, Narendra Modi? Your gaddar is the father of thieves, the captain of thieves; the chief of dacoits…the gaddar’s father is a thief, too”. “Those who talk to the BJP at night, those who kiss the BJP in the day we don’t keep contact with them,” she said. She listed out a bunch of projects and schemes – hospitals, roads, student credit, and money for smartphone and promised there was more to come. “I have done a lot of work here. But the gaddars claim they have done it,” she said.

Speaking in Nandakumar area of the same district, later, she kept up the attack on the Adhikaris. She took the blame on herself for not recognizing the party’s alleged traitors. She found another tag, “Bibhishon”, for those who quit her party to join the BJP, likening them to Ravana’s younger brother who sided with Lord Rama.