TMC MP Jawhar Sircar on Monday said that a part of his party is "completely rotten" and BJP cannot be fought in the 2024 elections with such elements.

Sircar, a former bureaucrat who was elected to Rajya Sabha last year, said his family and friends asked him to quit politics after TMC leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal were arrested.

"You can't put up a fight against the BJP in 2024 with rotten elements in the party. A portion of the party is completely rotten. These rotten elements have to be operated out, or else it will infect the entire body," he told ABP Ananda news channel.

Referring to the hoards of cash recovered at the apartment of Arpita Mukherjee, an associate of Chatterjee, he said it was a very embarrassing moment for him.

"I had never encountered such a situation even when I was an IAS officer. My family asked me to quit politics, my friends called me up to ask how much I got. It was a very embarrassing moment for me," he said.

Sircar said he joined politics to defeat the BJP.

"If even after ten years we fail to defeat the BJP in 2024, then there might not be any other Lok Sabha election," he claimed.

The Trinamool Congress declined to comment on Sircar's remarks.

"The party's leadership will speak to him," a senior TMC leader said.