‘Elephants walk on road and people bark from behind’: BJP on Mamata Banerjee’s ‘khela hobe in 2024’ call

New Delhi: Union Minister and BJP leader Shantanu Thakur on Thursday (September 8, 2022) took a swipe at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her 'Khela Hobe in 2024' comment and said "elephants walk on the road and people bark from behind".

The BJP leader also expressed confidence in his party to win the next Lok Sabha elections and said that TMC supremo's comment about removing BJP from the Centre in 2024 will not happen come true even in dreams.

“Removing the BJP party in 2024, will not happen even in the dream. She should not talk like this, because every politician is a public representative who goes to the Parliament or Assembly after winning and that should be respected, but she takes it as a game,” Thakur said.

Elephants walk on the road and people bark from behind. Talking about removing BJP from the government in 2024, it cannot happen even in a distant dream: Union Minister Shantanu Thakur on WB CM Mamata Banerjee's statement of 'Khela Hobe in 2024' (08.09) pic.twitter.com/2Sh38JV3Ag — ANI (@ANI) September 8, 2022

The BJP leader’s remarks came after West Bengal CM, while addressing a party gathering, said she along with other Chief Ministers in neighbouring states would come together to defeat the BJP in 2024. The Bengal Chief Minister urged Trinamool Congress leaders to gear up for a fight against the BJP.

"There is Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, Hemant Soren in Jharkhand. We will all unite and defeat the BJP in 2024. Opposition parties will join hands to defeat the BJP. All of us will be on one side and the BJP on the other. The BJP's arrogance, its hope of bagging 300 seats will be its nemesis. 'Khela Hobe' in 2024," Banerjee said. 

The Trinamool Congress had coined the slogan 'Khela Hobe' (game to be played) in the run up to the 2021 West Bengal election in which the ruling party in Bengal defeated the BJP to storm back to power for the third consecutive term.