BJP murdering democracy ahead of 'festival of democracy': TMC's Abhishek

Hooghly (WB): Senior TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday accused the BJP of "murdering" democracy ahead of the "festival of democracy", and predicted that the saffron camp would face complete decimation in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.

Banerjee's remark drew sharp reactions from the BJP, which claimed that the TMC was tense as it felt that ground was slipping from under its feet.

"The BJP is wary about the outcome of the Lok Sabha results in Bengal and India. That is why they are desperate to murder democracy, and that too during the biggest festival of democracy - the Lok Sabha polls," Banerjee told reporters here.

He alleged that there is a collusion between the BJP and central agencies, such as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED), to harass the opposition parties.

"The BJP knows it can't win on its own after 10 years of anti-incumbency and misrule. So they have engaged their trusted allies, the ED, CBI, and NIA, I-T (income tax department), to harass and arrest leaders of the opposition camp. We have no problem if these agencies take action against the real culprits, but we are against witch-hunting," he said.

A team of the NIA was allegedly attacked by a mob on April 6 when it went to arrest two main suspects in the 2022 blast in Purba Medinipur district, sparking a political slugfest with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accusing the investigators of assaulting villagers there.

Reacting to Abhishek's remarks, BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya dubbed the allegations as baseless.

"The BJP is confident of its victory and achieving the target of 35 seats. It is the TMC that has sensed defeat and its political ground is slipping beneath its feet. That is why they are making such baseless allegations," he said.

In 2019, the TMC had won 22 Lok Sabha seats, whereas the BJP had put up its best performance by bagging 18, while the Congress won just two.