BJP collecting rejects in its begging bowl: Trinamool

Kolkata: West Bengal Minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim on Sunday ridiculed the BJP, saying it was standing outside the offices of the ruling Trinamool Congress with a "begging bowl" to take "rejected players" in their party.

The senior Trinamool leader claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party will not be able to attain any success in the state in the 2019 polls as they do not have sufficient leaders to field candidates in 42 Lok Sabha seats here.

"They (BJP) will not be able to do anything. The party doesn't have leaders or activists. They are standing outside the Trinamool's party office with a begging bowl, looking for potential candidates," Hakim said while campaigning for party's Kolkata North candidate Sudeep Bandyopadhyay here.

"Often smaller clubs stand outside the tents of (city football majors) East Bengal and Mohun Bagan expecting to hire players who are sidelined in these clubs. BJP's situation is the same. They are making a big fuss about taking some former Trinamool leaders in their party but all these are rejected players. They are of no use," he said.

A number of Trinamool leaders including sitting MPs Anupam Hazra and Soumitra Khan and MLA Arjun Singh had recently defected to the BJP and got its ticket to fight the Lok Sabha polls from the state.

Attacking BJP's National Secretary and Kolkata North candidate Rahul Sinha, Hakim claimed that people will remember him as a "loser" as he has lost two elections from the constituency and is set to lose for the third time in 2019 polls.