Kolkata: A leader of the Mamata Banerjee’s party in Bengal has prompted a controversy with his anti-Bihar rant at a public meeting. Trinamool MLA Manoranjan Byapari has called people from Bihar a “bimaari” or disease and says Bengal should be “disease-free”, in a video that has gone viral.
“If Bengali blood runs through your veins…If the blood of Khudiram and Netaji (Subhash Chandra Bose) runs through your veins and if you love your mother tongue and motherland, then you have to shout out loud – ‘Ek Bihari, sou bimari’ (One Bihar person is equal to 100 diseases)’. We don’t want diseases. Make Bengal disease-free. Jai Bangla, Jai Didi Mamata Banerjee,” Manoranjan Byapari said at the recent Kolkata Book Fair.
The remarks were called out by the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, a former Trinamool Congress leader, who shared the video on Twitter.
He was also heard saying: “If everything is fine in Bihar, then s***la go back to Bihar.
He also slammed Shatrughan Sinha, the actor-politician from Bihar who was recently named as a Trinamool candidate for bypolls in Bengal.
“My humble question to Bihari Babu Shri Shatrugan Sinha. Sir, what do you feel about this disgraceful rant of TMC MLA Manoranjan Byapari? Your new party colleague is very transparent about his feelings towards Biharis,” Mr Adhikari tweeted through his twitter account.
Mr Byapari is a first-time MLA who won from Hooghly in last year’s Bengal election. According to reports, he learnt to read in prison when he was 24 and went on to write several books.
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