West Bengal's Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan on Friday called BJP President Amit Shah a "copycat", for merely imitating top Congress leaders when he had lunch and refreshments at homes of tribals, Dalits and poor people uduring his recent trip to the state.
Mannan said Shah has merely done what Congress stalwarts like late Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and present day leader Rahul Gandhi have been doing for decades.
"From Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi, all of them had gone to the houses of Dalits, tribals and poor people and shared their food. There is no novelty in what Shah has done. He merely copied them," Mannan told media persons here.
During his three-day trip to the state that ended on Thursday, Shah had a vegetarian lunch in the tin-roofed house of a tribal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter in Naxalbari of Darjeeling district.
He later took refreshments at the homes of Dalits in south Kolkata's Bhowanipore assembly constituency - represented in the legislature by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee - and Rajarhat in the city's northeastern fringes.
Mannan urged all secular parties to join in the fight against the BJP but accused the state's ruling Trinamool Congress of being hand in glove with the BJP. "These two parties have a covert understanding to reap mutual benefit," he said.
--IANS
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