Abhishek Banerjee challenges Amit Shah to contest against him

Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday, 30 April, challenged Union home minister Amit Shah to contest against him from Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency and if the BJP leader wins, he would retire from active politics.

Banerjee, who is considered the number two in the TMC, also said that Shah has two other options to make him retire from politics.

"If you want Abhishek Banerjee to leave active politics, then I would like you to fulfil any of the three options I am providing you today. You release the state's due of Rs 1,64,000 crore and I will retire within 24 hours. The second option is to release the funds of the PM Awas Yojana," Banerjee said at an election rally for TMC’s Mathurapur candidate Bapi Halder.

"The nomination for the Diamond Harbour constituency is yet to start. The third option: you (Shah) contest from here and defeat me. I will leave politics forever," the party’s national general secretary said.

Responding to the BJP leader’s statement in Memari earlier in the day that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee wants him to be the next chief minister of West Bengal, Abhishek Banerjee said everyone is not like him (Shah).

"You wish to make your son the BCCI president. Not all are like you. You have never been part of any agitation. You are a person who was jailed. We do not need to learn any moral values and ideology from you," Banerjee said.

The Union home minister’s son Jay Shah is the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"You are in politics for your benefit. We do not do that. We are in politics to address the cause of the people," he said.