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Banerjee launched the attack against rebel leaders amid the demolition of his MP office.
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Saturday threw down a dramatic challenge to former party colleagues who quit the Trinamool Congress and have since turned critics, asking them to return to party supremo Mamata Banerjee—and offering to quit politics within the hour if any of them did so.
“Those who left the party and are now abusing or blaming me today… I challenge them to return to Didi,” the Diamond Harbour MP said, even as demolition crews, under heavy police cover, tore down his party office on the Amtala–Baruipur Road the same day.
Banerjee was unsparing in his charge that the rebels would never take up his offer because, he alleged, they had struck a bargain with the BJP. “If they do, I will resign from the party within an hour… But they won’t. They have made a deal with the BJP: leave the party, join the rebel camp or the BJP, take protection from the ED, CBI and other agencies and then blame and abuse Abhishek Banerjee,” he said.
He argued that defections timed to investigative summons betrayed fear rather than conviction. “Everyone has the right to make their own decision and go wherever they want. But if someone switches sides the moment they receive an ED summons, it is clear they do not want to fight. They are afraid, and only those who are afraid give in,” he said, adding that he himself had faced roughly ten ED summonses besides notices from the CBI, STF and state police, and was contesting in the Calcutta High Court for a complete list of the 20-30 FIRs filed against him.
The remarks came even as bulldozers moved into Amtala to demolish his MP office, which authorities said was constructed without proper sanction. The demolition, carried out amid tight security, is part of a broader civic action.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has issued notices against 17 properties linked to Banerjee, his family and his firm Leaps and Bounds—including his Harish Mukherjee Road residence and Shantiniketan—after the BJP circulated a list of 43 properties it claims are tied to the MP, sourced from KMC records.
Mamata Banerjee had earlier this week backed her nephew, insisting he had “done no wrong” and accusing the BJP of engineering defections through Central agencies, while vowing to rebuild the party “from scratch” if needed.
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