West Bengal assembly elections: Mamata Banerjee reveals her ‘gotra’, BJP smells her ‘fear of defeat’
BJP leaders on Wednesday gleefully jumped on Mamata Banerjee’s statement disclosing her gotra, saying that it was the latest of the last-ditch attempts the Trinamool boss was having to make in order to stave off her impending defeat in Nandigram constituency and loss of power.
In the last phase of her campaign against BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, Banerjee declared herself to be of ‘Shandilya’ gotra — a revelation which immediately prompted BJP leader Giriraj Singh to taunt her. “Do you consider Rohingyas and other infiltrators as Shandilyas and offered them the red carpet?” Singh asked, setting off a row with TMC MP Mohua Moitra.
“Giriraj says Mamata’s from ‘Rohingya clan’. Proud of it. Far better than being from the chotiwala rakshasa clan,” Moitra tweeted. Singh, who identifies himself as a ‘Shandilya’ on social media, had said that Banerjee was forced to play the ‘gotra’ card because of the fear that she was going to lose.
“Mamata didi, now it is to be found out whether the gotra of Rohingyas and the infiltrators is Shandilya or not. Those who settled Rohingyas for votes, those who stopped Durga puja and Kali puja and humiliated Hindus, now descended on gotra in fear of defeat. Shandilya gotra is dedicated to Sanatan and the nation, not for the vote,” Singh tweeted.
Moitra’s “chhotiwala rakshasa clan” riposte invited sharp responses from BJP netas. “Proud of being Rohingya and calling Hindus rakshasas is a new low even by TMC’s otherwise low standards. Shame on their appeasement politics,” BJP MP Locket Chatterjee said.
Sharing a 2017 report of a Banerjee government order prohibiting immersion of Durga idols after 6 pm on Dashami (Sept 30) till October 1 due to Muharram processions, BJP’s B L Santhosh tweeted, “After all this, now telling actually I’m a Shandilya… voters are not fools.”
