Goa Forward Party leader compares Mamata Banerjee to ‘Durga’, BJP govt to ‘Bhasmasur’; CM fumes

PTI, Oct 17, 2021, 2:46 PM IST

Panaji: A Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader has kicked up a row by comparing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to Goddess Durga who he said would eliminate the ”Bhasmasur” BJP government in the coastal state, inviting a rebuke from Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.

GFP working president Kiran Kandolkar on Saturday said that Goa needs to bring ”Durga” from West Bengal who would eliminate this “Bhasmasur” BJP government.

He had also admitted that the GFP was in talks with the Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) to ally for the next year’s Goa Assembly elections.

“People of Goa will never tolerate such a comparison. You cannot compare Goddess Shantadurga with a human being…someone who committed atrocities on women after West Bengal election results,” the chief minister told reporters.

Without taking Banerjee’s name, Sawant said the people have seen how that person and that party (TMC) ”butchered people after the West Bengal polls”. The CM said the BJP has kept its doors open for the like-minded parties for a tie-up to keep at bay ”the new political parties with anti-social agenda which wanted to enter Goa through the upcoming elections”. The TMC had last month announced that it would contest the Goa Assembly polls.