BJP national president J.P. Nadda on Sunday highlighted alleged corruption and malpractices under the Mamata Banerjee regime and dropped enough hints that his party would seek to corner the Trinamul Congress in the coming panchayat elections on the issues of graft.

Nadda addressed two public rallies — one at Purbasthali in East Burdwan and the other at Ramnagar in East Midnapore — on Sunday. Both his speeches dealt with alleged shortcomings, malpractices and violence that has been unleashed on Bengal under chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

“In the TMC (abbreviation of the Trinamul Congress), T stands for tolabaaji (extortion) and terror, M stands for mafia and money laundering, and C stands for corruption and commission. This is the full form of the TMC,” Nadda said at Purbasthali, echoing the rhetoric his party had come up with ahead of the 2021 Bengal Assembly polls.

Nadda referred to alleged malpractices in the housing for all scheme and the cash-for-recruitment scam in his speeches since the BJP believes that those two issues have a major impact on the rural populace and can serve as important weapons in the election campaign.

“Mamata just doesn’t quit her political interventions. She changed the name of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to Bangla Awas Yojana. Moreover, the scheme is being audited currently. Trinamul leaders who own two-storeyed houses were found availing themselves of the PM Awas Yojana,” Nadda said at the rally in Ramnagar.

He then referred to the SSC and TET recruitment scams.

For the saffron camp, which is generally attuned to speeches and narratives dripped with polarising innuendos, Nadda’s speeches appeared to be somewhat of a deviation.

Although Nadda began his day by visiting a temple in Purbasthali and invoked Hindu gods and goddesses prominent in Bengal’s culture during his speeches, he spoke primarily on corruption and violence.

While his visits are aimed at strengthening the BJP’s foothold in Lok Sabha constituencies which the party had lost in 2019, it was clear that the saffron camp was trying to use those events to develop an anti-Trinamul mood among the electorate ahead of panchayat polls.

“The scams in the housing scheme and teacher recruitments have infuriated the people who live in villages. Naddaji showed us the way today that we would have to focus on such issues in the near future,” a source in the BJP said.

“We will be going slow on the polarisation angle for now and only bring that card out when necessary.”

Nadda also made several other allegations against Trinamul. He said members of the ruling party had stolen the free rations that the Union government disburses under the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana and alleged that money earned from the smuggling of cow and coal could be recovered from Mamata’s residence.

He also reacted to Mamata’s allegations that the Union government had a differential attitude towards Bengal and had stopped the release of funds to the state.

“Modiji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) never differentiates. You’ll be happy to know that in this year’s budget, Modiji has allocated Rs 1,000 crore for the Calcutta metro rail, Rs 15 crore for the Chittaranjan Cancer Institute, Rs 63 crore for the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and Rs 23 crore for the Indian Statistical Institute,” Nadda said as he kept listing the achievements of the Modi government in the past few years.

Later in the day, Trinmul’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee reacted to Nadda’s allegations. “Let him (Nadda) come with the report card of his government (the BJP-led Union government). I’ll come with the report card of my government (the state government). Everything will be clear,” said Abhishek.

On allegations of violence during the polls, Abhishek said he would help the parties in Opposition file their nominations, but before that, they would have to find candidates for all panchayat seats.

4 held with 90 gold bars

A team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized smuggled gold worth over Rs 10 crore from a train at New Jalpaiguri station on Saturday.

Sources said the team searched the Calcutta-bound Kanchenjunga Express and recovered 90 gold bars weighing 18.657kg, worth Rs 10.60 crore, from the quartet of Assam’s Karimganj — Nirmalendu Paul, Sujan Paul, Pijush Podder and Sujit Das — who were arrested.

In recent times, this is a major gold haul in this region.

The gold was smuggled via Myanmar and brought to Assam to be smuggled to Calcutta, said sources.

DRI’s lawyer Ratan Bank said the four were produced in court here on Sunday, which sent them in judicial custody for a day.