TMC, BJP have high political stakes in Bengal’s fund-freeze

The fight over West Bengal’s dues of Centre-funded welfare schemes, especially MGNREGA and housing schemes, are unfolding into a battle for winning public perception in the state.

While TMC’s senior-most leaders are camping in Capital to have their voices heard, nationally, the BJP Bengal wing is offering counter-narratives to Trinamool’s claims.

BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari, and party’s other MLAs, on Monday, participated in a protest to highlight alleged corruption in Bengal, in Kolkata. Meanwhile, party’s other senior leaders, including state president Sukanta Majumdar, offered explanations on the freeze of funds. 

Adhikari stated that around 1.30 crore job cards in West Bengal faced deletion due to various reasons – “false/ wrong/ duplicate/ underage”.

“1,30,00,000 MGNREGA job cards were deleted in West Bengal since the process of Aadhaar card seeding began,” he stated on X.

The leader, with an assumption that if a payment of Rs 10,000 was paid, to each of these card holders over a period of ten years, then the “siphoned” amount would be worth Rs 13,000 crore.

“The cacophony of fake protest raised by TMC leaders is nothing but sighs of despair of not being able to loot anymore,” he stated on X, alleging the protest of the leaders as “fake”.

Adhikari, too, like the Union minister Giriraj Singh, talked of a CBI probe into the alleged “scam”.

TMC's campaign in Bengal for the release of the funds, has been a prolonged one, culminating in Delhi with buses packed with “deprived” beneficiaries seeking dues.

The beneficiaries, during their Delhi tour, are also to observe how the Centre has spent to build a new Parliament building, whereas their funds have been blocked. TMC has also pitched numbers of job cards that have been deleted in Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat, to point out that Bengal is not an exception.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, earlier this year, had asked Bengal’s voters to give BJP 35-plus seats, of the 42 in the state. TMC, meanwhile, has maintained a steady political domination, sweeping local polls, besides forming the government in Bengal for a third consecutive term in 2021. 

The tussle in Bengal between the leading political opponents is a stiff one. The stakes are high in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, and the fund-freeze is a vital issue before the parties while approaching the voters.