New Delhi:

BJP President JP Nadda launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over ‘vote bank politics’ and said that the former is compromising with the nation for her vote bank.

JP Nadda accused Mamata Banerjee of providing shelter to infiltrators and giving them ID cards and ration cards, making them voters, and called such actions “anti-national”.

Answering the ways to stop violence in West Bengal, Mr Nadda said, “Law and order is a state subject, we (the centre) can support them but Mamata Banerjee’s intentions are not clear. Her intention is dubious.”

In an interview with news agency ANI, the BJP President slammed the West Bengal chief minister over the alleged Sandeshkhali incident and raised questions about her silence.

“She was silent on the case of Sheikh Shahjahan, the High Court had to give the enquiry to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Women were shouting and you even didn’t bother,” he said.

Asked about the allegations of Mamata Banerjee that the Sandeshkhali incident was a conspiracy of the BJP, Mr Nadda said, “Dishonest administrator, dishonest politician. If I’m the chief minister and a case like this comes to me, I’ll say that I’ll investigate into this. I’ll go into the details of it. Why was she quiet at first and later she blamed the BJP.”

“She compromised with the nation for the sake of a vote bank. TMC is providing shelter to infiltrators and giving them ID cards and ration cards, making them voters, this is anti-national activities. They also give protection to such people,” Mr Nadda added.

Sandeshkhali, a village in North 24 Parganas district, started hitting the headlines in February this year when villagers, mostly women, came out on the streets against the ruling TMC and Shahjahan (the main accused in the incident).

Women accused Shahjahan and his aides of perpetrating atrocities on them along with gobbling up their land. Multiple women on the island accused Shajahan and his aides of “land-grab and sexual assault” under coercion.

Meanwhile, the BJP President further accused Mamata Banerjee of “spreading information” regarding the Citizenship Amendment Act and said, “She is spreading misinformation about CAA. She’s doing anti-national things. CAA will not be given to someone who is coming from outside. Doesn’t Mamata understand this, is she so illiterate? No. She understands everything. But she is trying to misguide the innocent people.”

Speaking on why Mamata Banerjee left the INDIA alliance, Mr Nadda said, “I can’t speak about her thought process but her actions don’t suggest that she has a stable mind. She always stays unstable.”
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress has now knocked on the doors of the Election Commissioner with an official complaint against the Central Bureau of Investigation, or CBI, accusing it of “throttling” the Opposition’s, including its own, campaigns at a time when elections are on. The letter of complaint was sent last evening.

This comes after the Bengal government moved the Supreme Court on Friday against a Calcutta High Court order directing a CBI probe into allegations of extortion, land grab, and sexual assault from Sandeshkhali against now-suspended Trinamool leader, Sheikh Shahjahan, and his aides. The Supreme Court move followed the CBI’s raids on hideouts linked to suspects in the case.

The federal agency recovered foreign-made weapons and ammunition, following which teams of the elite National Security Guard (NSG) commandos were deployed to the spot.

The party said there is “no way of knowing with certainty” if the weapons allegedly retrieved in the searches were “surreptitiously planted by the CBI/NSG”.

“Your office has turned a blind eye while Central probe agencies continue to wreak havoc across the nation, especially during the election period,” the party’s complaint to the poll body read.

“Today, i.e. 26.04.2024, is the day earmarked as the polling day for Phase II of the ensuing Lok Sabha Elections, 2024. More specifically in West Bengal, the electorate was scheduled to vote in three
Parliamentary Constituencies, which are, Darjeeling, Raiganj, and Balurghat. While elections were going on, the CBI deliberately carried out an unscrupulous raid at an empty location in Sandeshkhali. Media reports suggest that the CBI called in additional forces including the bomb squad of the National Security Guard (NSG). It has also been reported that arms and ammunition have been recovered from
a house during such raid,” the letter said.

“… though ‘law and order’ is a domain falling completely within the ambit of the state government, the CBI did not issue an actionable notice to the state government and/or the police authorities before carrying out such a raid. Further, the state police has a fully functional bomb disposal squad which could have assisted the entire operation, if the CBI indeed felt that a bomb squad was required during such a raid. However, no such assistance was sought by the CBI.

“It is astonishing to notice that media personnel were already present during such the raid even before the state administration arrived at the spot. At such point in time, it was already nationwide news that weapons had been recovered during the raid. There is no way of knowing with certainty, as to whether these weapons were indeed recovered during the search and seizure procedure or whether they were surreptitiously planted by the CBI/NSG,” it alleged.

The TMC accused the CBI of “deliberately” informing the media “well in advance so that there is nationwide odium and contempt against the AITC and its candidates during the present election period”.

“Media was fed with false information that the location belonged to an
AITC supporter. Nothing has been proven in a court of law, however, the CBI has notoriously instrumentalised the media to spread this rumour. Hence ensuring, that a negative campaign is run against AITC not only during a polling day when the electors watch such news before casting their votes but also during the entire election period as a whole.”

“The BJP compromised the sanctity of the ensuing elections by spreading a sense of terror amongst the electorate, thereby attempting to gain an undue advantage…” it further said.

The party has urged the poll commission to issue immediate guidelines whereby political parties and functionaries are not acted against by any central investigating agency, including the CBI, during the period of elections and issue immediate directions to the agencies and the media to remove all references to AITC in their reporting.

The Sandeshkhali row broke after Shahjahan’s supporters set upon an ED team on their way to conduct searches related to a separate case. ED officials were hurt in the attack following which, the Trinamool strongman went on the run. He managed to evade the cops for nearly two months until his arrest in March.

Kolkata:

Amid the row over his offensive remark against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, BJP MP Dilip Ghosh today launched a counterstrike on Ms Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek and questioned his comments on BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari and his family.

“Just because Suvendu Adhikari is a man, he and his father [former MP and Union Minister Sisir Adhikari] don’t have any respect? A woman card is being used frequently,” he told the media.

Mr Ghosh has come under fire for his remarks on Ms Banerjee on the campaign trail for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. “Didi goes to Goa and says, ‘I am Goa’s daughter’, then goes to Tripura and says, ‘I am Tripura’s daughter’. Decide who your father is. It is not good to be just anybody’s daughter,” he said.

The Trinamool came out strongly against the video and said Mr Ghosh’s remarks show he has “zero respect” for women. Party leaders also said his remarks reflect frustration over being moved from the Medinipur seat, which he currently represents, to Bardhaman Durgapur.

The comments left the BJP red-faced and provided fodder to the Opposition at a time when the BJP was trying to corner the Congress over offensive social media posts from the profile of its spokesperson Supriya Shrinate.

Ms Shrinate has said the derogatory posts on BJP candidate and actor Kangana Ranaut were made without her knowledge.

Hours after Trinamool launched an attack on the BJP over Mr Ghosh’s remarks, the party leadership demanded an explanation from him.

Mr Ghosh has said he will respond to the party’s questions. “This is not the first time a controversy has erupted over my remarks. I have no personal enmity with the Chief Minister. I have only questioned the political remarks she has made to mislead people. A lot of people have problems with my language and usage of words. My party has also pointed it out. Many have said it is unparliamentary. If that is the case, I regret it.”

“But I have a question. A leader from her party, her family, has said worse things about the leader of BJP’s legislative party (Suvendu Adhikari) and his father. Don’t they have any respect? His father is a senior politician in Bengal. The Trinamool did not protest then. Why didn’t they issue a statement? I have made a political statement,” he said, without naming Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamool’s national general secretary.

Mr Banerjee has, in the past, launched scathing attacks on Suvendu Adhikari, calling him a “traitor” after he left the Trinamool and joined the BJP.

On a question on the Trinamool repeating Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra as a candidate but not naming her a star campaigner, Mr Ghosh said, “This is their party’s business. They can’t find candidates, so they are getting tainted people and going as far as Gujarat. The public will decide.”

Krishnanagar, he said, has a rich heritage. “It is the land of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. And the MP representing that seat says whatever she wants in Parliament and then gets suspended. I have said nothing (compared to her). Will people vote for her?”