TMC flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress on Monday attacked the BJP-led central government alleging that its agencies were on overdrive against leaders of West Bengal’s ruling party to weaken the agitation demanding MGNREGA dues to the state ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
In a press meet here, the Mamata Banerjee-led party also sought to know why no action is being taken against BJP leaders at state and central levels, who have allegedly amassed huge wealth.
“The agitation demanding clearing of due wages of 100-day job card holders was slated to get momentum in the first week of November, with the Centre remaining indifferent. So, the BJP unleashed the central agencies to harass TMC leaders,” senior Bengal minister Partha Bhowmik said.
The agencies are raiding various places and arresting key leaders, he said.
Bhowmik was referring to the arrest of minister Jyoti Priya Mallick by the ED in connection with its investigation into the alleged ration supply scam on October 27. Mallick, who currently holds the forest portfolio, is a former minister for food and civil supplies.
“Let the law take its own course. We don’t have anything to comment (on the cases),” the irrigation minister said.
“But the way our leaders are being framed by central agencies and charges levelled against them without the probe being completed, there is reason to believe that the BJP is working with an agenda to weaken the prospect of opposition parties in the coming Lok Sabha polls,” Bhowmik said.
Mallick, a key leader of North 24 Parganas district, was put behind bars with an aim to weak the poll prospects of the TMC and help the BJP in five Lok Sabha seats in the district in the 2024 parliamentary polls.
Alleging that senior BJP leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Saumitra Khan and Suvendu Adhikari amassed huge wealth, Bhowmik’s cabinet colleague and TMC functionary Sashi Panja wondered why the CBI and ED are not being used against them.
She said, “After the arrest of Mallick, a media trial has begun on his property. Those BJP leaders have also amassed property. Why is no ED, CBI probe against them?”
Stating that TMC will always be ready to face any fair probe against any of its leaders, Panja said, “The BJP is targeting 95 per cent of opposition leaders. It failed to digest the drubbing in the 2021 assembly polls (in West Bengal).”
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged in a public meeting in Purba Medinipur district that loot and corruption were “institutionalised” in the TMC regime from 2012, a year after the party came to power in West Bengal.
“The probe by central agencies is moving in the right direction. But only small fishes have been netted till now. We are all waiting for a big catch,” the BJP leader said.