In an apparent reference to AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s whirlwind tour in Bengal, Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has once again made the “seasonal bird” barb to him despite Mr Gandhi skirting her jab aimed at him earlier. “I don’t do politics sitting on a golden couch. Like a cuckoo, I do not come as the seasonal bird only during the time of election and disappear when it is over,” Ms Banerjee said in oblique reference to the Congress’ young turk on Sunday.
The Trinamul Congress chief’s fresh salvo against Mr Gandhi without taking his name came at a rally in Nanoor in Birbhum where 11 farmers were killed by the CPI(M) activists in 2000. Significantly, this was the second time when the firebrand leader took on Mr Gandhi for his endeavour to galvanise the rank and file of the Congress in the state ahead of the Assembly elections in 2011 and set a poll-prospect with “respect and dignity”.
Just a day before Mr Gandhi’s visit to the state, Ms Banerjee on September 13 in North Bengal had made the seasonal bird comment which snowballed into a war of words between the alliance partners. “I am not like the proverbial cuckoo bird which arrives in spring and disappears at the end of the season. There is a consistency in my work in North Bengal,” she had said.
But the AICC general secretary did not lose his cool and made her barb light in reply to a question at a press conference on the final day of his visit. “Do I look like a bird to you? I do not think Mamataji was referring to me,” Mr Gandhi had said.
The retaliation of the Trinamul Congress chief on Sunday has indicated that the Nehru-Indira-Rajiv scion’s visit has not gone down well with her.
Meanwhile, reiterating her demand to stop the joint operation against the Maoists in the Jangalmahal, Ms Banerjee claimed that the CPI(M) leaders from that area have built houses and bought flats in south Kolkata. “They will take shelter there when the CPI(M) will not be in power. If anybody has doubt, I challenge to reveal the addresses of their houses,” she said.