Mamata Banerjee termed as illegal the Calcutta High Court order that cancelled 25,753 appointments at state-sponsored and aided schools and said the verdict would be challenged in the Supreme Court.

The judgment brought the three foremost forces in the Bengal Opposition on the same page as they made demands ranging from the chief minister’s resignation to arrest.

Campaigning for her party in Raiganj, North Dinajpur, Mamata came out all guns blazing.

“They have been using the excuse of legality to cancel recruitments made by us. This verdict is an illegal order… and that is why I am challenging it,” said Mamata, before repeatedly urging those affected by the verdict not to give up hope.

“We are going to move the Supreme Court. Our teachers and youths should not worry. Even if nobody else stands by them in such times of trouble, I always will,” she added, to loud cheers from the audience. “It puts the lives of 26,000 people and their families at risk, taking the number of affected to 1.5-2 lakh…. After working for eight years, they have been told to return their salaries in four weeks. Is that possible?”

The Trinamool Congress chief, according to multiple sources in the party, had sent out instructions against knee-jerk reactions to the judgment from party spokespersons. The sources said she had told them to follow her speech at Raiganj — where she would take the proverbial bull by the horns — to figure out what the party’s official line would be on the judgment.

In it, Mamata pulled no punches.

She said her regime had been waiting to recruit for 10 lakh government jobs it created, but the process had been blocked by “them” — referring to the BJP — through the judiciary.

“It seems the judicial system is being influenced by the BJP. If others file PILs, they are ignored, but the BJP’s PILs are entertained. This has been going on for far too long,” alleged Mamata.

“It is not the fault of the judges but of the BJP-led Centre. The Centre has planted BJP sympathisers here, so they can draft diktats from the BJP offices,” she added. “If, for this, they want to file a defamation suit against me, and have me incarcerated, I am ready. If I have to be punished for raising my voice for the people, I am ready. When our people are in trouble, I am not one to forsake them.”

The chief minister brought up a promise made a few days back by BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari about a “big explosion” this week.

“Days ago, they said they would drop explosives and this happened today? The gaddar (traitor) talked about explosives… and today, the jobs of 26,000 people were cancelled. I condemn this and ask how the gaddar knew before the verdict. If the BJP hadn’t dictated this verdict, how then did they know about this two days before it was delivered?” asked Mamata.

She also attacked former judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who stepped down from
the high court to contest on a BJP ticket in the Lok Sabha polls, for his role in
this when he was part of the judiciary.

“This order was by someone who is now contesting as a BJP candidate. The Supreme Court had set aside the order and talked about a new division bench,” she said. “I am not commenting on the judge but the judgment, that is my right. We are challenging the entire verdict.”

In response to the verdict, while Gangopadhyay demanded her resignation, Adhikari claimed it further substantiated that the Trinamool regime was one of “thieves”.

“We condemn this corrupt dispensation, which facilitates the sale of jobs for bribes by ministers and senior leaders,” alleged Adhikari.

CPM state secretary Md. Salim said Mamata and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee should be arrested and the money allegedly accepted as bribes for the sale of jobs should be extracted from them.

“They cannot go unpunished for destroying the future of generations,” he said.

Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has alleged that corruption and Trinamool are synonymous and rued what the state has become under the Mamata regime.

“They committed the sins, they have to atone for it,” he said.

“There is nothing other than corruption in the Bengal discourse, not industry, healthcare, education, employment, nothing else. What has this state become?” asked Chowdhury, who is also the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha.