The margin of lead in the Diamond Harbour conspiracy in the forthcoming Lok Sabha election is likely to go up, said Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of Trinamul Congress and party’s nominee from the constituency.

Mr Banerjee had won the election in 2019 by 3.20 lakh votes. “I am not a soothsayer but I strongly feel that people do not walk away from a person who has worked sincerely in the area. During Covid or natural calamities like Bulbul, Yash, Aila and Amphan our workers had worked round-the-clock to serve the people in distress. People have seen our performance and I think on 1 June when the election will be held in the constituency, they will give a befitting reply to the anti-Bengal brigade,” Mr Banerjee said after submitting nomination papers in the office of the district magistrate and collector of south 24-Parganas this afternoon.

“I have taken the blessings of the seniors and the way people have joined our rallies across the state is very encouraging. I express my gratitude to everyone,” he said.

Mr Banerjee said, “We have called them outsiders as they do not understand our culture and tradition and worked to ensure that Bengal is deprived of the dues. Because of the step-motherly attitude of these people we have called them outsiders. They did not clear the money meant for MGNREGA and Awas Plus schemes. After the 2021 Assembly election, they did not give a single penny in these schemes,” he remarked.

Mr Banerjee said he had requested chief minister Mamata Banerjee to take up the matter seriously in the Supreme Court and submit the video footage on Sandeshkhali where two BJP mandal presidents were heard saying how the videos had been made. The whole drama had been orchestrated by the BJP. In another video Rekha Patra, BJP candidate from Basirhat Lok Sabha seat was heard saying that those who had not been abused were taken to meet the President in New Delhi. I think more will come out.”

Coming down heavily on the saffron party, he said, “We had heard about the Godhra riot and Pulwama incident, where the BJP had engineered them to win the election. In Sandeshkhali, we have seen how the BJP engineered a false incident just to make a narrow gain. It is the most heinous party in the world and for narrow gain it can go up to any extent.”

He said a section of the media and judiciary are working to malign the state government.” What pleasure do you get by maligning 10 crore people of Bengal.”

He urged people to vote for Trinamul Congress to put an end to the highhandedness of the anti Bengal brigade and ensure all round development of Diamond Harbour.