The mess over the Lionel Messi event at Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday came as a surprise gift for the BJP to tear into Mamata Banerjee, her ministers, the police and the event management, and blame them for Bengal's humilation.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya, the leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar, and the party’s IT chief and Bengal minder Amit Malviya were among the main leaders who threw all possible gauntlets at Mamata Banerjee, taking up the issue as a weapon ahead of the state elections.
Bhattacharya, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, directly questioned the intention of the Trinamool Congress in organising the event.
“A group of people from Trinamool deliberately organised the event to collect huge amounts of money. I heard that the organiser has been arrested. Who is the organiser?.... People were forced to buy tickets in the black market and buy water bottles for ₹300 each and a packet of chips for ₹100. It was an event meant to loot people’s money,” Bhattacharya said.
BJP leaders flooded the party’s official social media handles with photographs and video clips of the vandalism at the stadium.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed that Mamata Banerjee’s game plan — where she wanted to raise the slogan “Khela Hobe” using Messi — had turned into proof of gross mismanagement.
“The ‘Khela Hobe’ circus turned into a TMC loot-fest. The game completely changed,” said Adhikari, who directly accused Mamata’s ministers Aroop Biswas and Sujit Bose of organising the event to loot huge amounts of money using Messi’s name.
“It was organised by the state government, and the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, with assistance from Kolkata Police, was in charge of security. Therefore, Mamata Banerjee should not only apologise but also resign,” Suvendu said. He also wrote to governor C.V. Ananda Bose, demanding that money be refunded in full to the crowd and ministers Biswas and Bose be arrested.
BJP apart, both the CPM and the Congress mounted sharp attacks on Mamata Banerjee.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty mocked Trinamool's “Khela Hobe” slogan, citing massive mismanagement during the Lionel Messi event.
“Was it Biswa Bangla or an attempt to tarnish Bengal’s image before the world? Was it ‘Khela Hobe’ or ‘Khela Holo’? Why should people tolerate Trinamool leaders cordoning off Messi?” asked Chakraborty, reminding people of the successful 2008 event during Left rule when football legend Diego Maradona visited Calcutta.
Congress state president Subhankar Sarkar wrote on his social media handle: “Terrible mismanagement and a mockery of law and order. Absolute incompetence on the part of the West Bengal government.”
Governor orders probe
Governor C.V. Ananda Bose expressed grave concern over Saturday’s chaos at the Lionel Messi event and ordered a probe to identify those responsible. Bose, who visited Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday evening, was allegedly stopped from entering as the stadium had been closed.
