Trinamul Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said there could not be two laws, one for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the other for the opposition parties in India.

He was addressing a mammoth rally organised jointly by the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad and Trinamul Youth Congress at Shahid Minar this afternoon. The meeting was organised to protest against the step-motherly attitude of Centre in clearing West Bengal’s dues, highhandedness and vindictive attitude of the investigating agencies.

“I do not support what Rahul Gandhi had said but if his membership as an MP is cancelled for making a statement against Narendra Modi, then why Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s MP membership should not be cancelled for insulting the women folk when he said ‘Didi O Didi’ before the 2021 Assembly election. By the same standards Suvendu Adhikari’s MLA-ship should be scrapped as well for his statement against minister Birbaha Hansda that she should live below his feet,” he said.

He asked the legal cell members of Trinamul Congress to use the judgement of Surat Court and get Suvendu arrested.

“I request Baisanor da (Chatterjee) to move the court citing the judgement of Surat Court to arrest Suvendu Adhikari for his statement,” he said, adding, “If I criticise a judgement of Calcutta High Court, a judge said ‘I should have issued a ruling against Banerjee’ but when the Union law minister said commented against Supreme Court judges for criticizing the Centre (‘joined the anti-India gang’) then no one said anything against the Union law minister,” he maintained.

Mr Banerjee said after the landslide defeat in the 2021 Assembly election, the sole target of BJP was West Bengal and to ensure that the Central funds were not released to defame Mamata Banerjee and her government.

“They have actually insulted and deprived the people of Bengal who will give a befitting reply to the BJP at the right moment,” he remarked.

Mr Banerjee said in 2019 the BJP got 18 Lok Sabha MPs. “What have they done for Bengal? They have conspired with the Centre to stop the dues,” he said, adding, “before 2014 Lok Sabha election Narendra Modi had held a meeting in the Brigade Parade ground where he said if Bengal had voted for him he would give two laddus to the people of the state. He has given that. He has stopped the dues for 100 days’ work and Aawas Yojana.

” The national general secretary said a meeting would be held in New Delhi to voice the demands.

He said Trinamul was the only party that had removed or suspended the leaders against whom allegations had been levelled.

He said in 2021-22 and 2022-23, the Centre had stopped 106 projects and the dues had amounted to a staggering Rs 1.15 lakh crore. He urged the party workers to gear up for bigger movements in near future.