The major Opposition parties of Bengal were jubilant on Thursday, with workers and supporters taking to the streets to celebrate Trinamul Birbhum chief Anubrata Mondal’s arrest across at least half-a-dozen districts of the state.

All the three parties — the BJP, the CPM and the Congress — sharpened their attack on the ruling establishment, accusing the Bengal chief minister of being involved in the alleged corruption and asserting that the buck must stop with her.

“If these investigations take place the way they should, then it would end at Didi (Mamata Banerjee)'s doorstep,” said Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the Congress’s leader in the Lok Sabha.

“So that it (proper investigation) does not happen, Didi went to (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi’s doorstep. She tried a lot, a lot. In trying to manage Modi, she allowed her credibility, her image in national politics, to be destroyed. Nobody trusts her anymore,” he added, referring to the Trinamul supremo’s Delhi trip last week, during which she met Modi on three occasions but no major player in the Opposition.

BJP workers distribute sweets at Chinsurah in Hooghly district on Thursday to celebrate Anubrata Mondal’s arrest. Amit Kumar Karmakar

Mamata also did not conduct a news meet during her stay in Delhi in a rare departure from her normal practice.

Mamata’s 45-minute, one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister on August 5, a day ahead of the vice-presidential election that her party abstained from, have prompted the Congress and the Left to allege a “setting (popular parlance for entente)”.

“The chief minister going to Delhi means headlines in the news, irrespective of what she does.... That Didi spent days in Delhi, playing hide-and-seek, like a thief, meeting Modi thrice, coming back to Calcutta... for whom was all this management? Not for Keshto (Anubrata Mondal), not for the big shots in her party. She went to manage Modi for herself,” alleged Chowdhury, also the Behrampore MP. “Why will you (Mamata) not resign today, taking moral responsibility? Who are the (now sacked minister and suspended Trinamul secretary-general) Partha Chatterjees and the Anubrata Mondals without your indulgence?” he asked.

At several places in north and central Calcutta, Congress workers and supporters distributed nakuldana (a traditional sugar candy).

Nakuldana and gur-batasha (jaggery and another kind of traditional sugar candy) were also distributed by BJP activists to passers-by in Calcutta, South 24-Parganas, Birbhum, West Burdwan, Hooghly and West Midnapore. At many such events, dhaak (a percussion instrument) was played.

“Elements such as nakuldana, gur-batasha, and the dhaak were rather infamously part of various public, political threats issued in the past by Anubrata (Mondal), which have remained alive in popular memory. Unfortunately, these elements were always quite likely to be widely used against us in such a scenario,” said a Trinamul MP.

The Left took out rallies with dhaak at various places, making public announcements of Mondal's arrest, mocking him and his party.

Outside the Asansol court where Mondal was produced, workers and supporters of arch-rivals BJP and CPM were seen celebrating next to each other, brandishing their respective party flags.

Social media was also abuzz through the day, with memes and other content posted by political parties as well as apolitical netizens that jeered at Mondal and Trinamul over the arrest.

CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said that there was nothing Trinamul could do now to defend Mondal or the party’s involvement in the alleged graft.

“For years, he considered himself above the law. His party, his supreme leader enabled him (to think so). There is nothing they can come up with now that could be a fitting response,” said Chakraborty.

The Bengal unit of the BJP, which had been weakening drastically since the drubbing in the Assembly election last year, has apparently started sensing some wind in its sails with the alacrity of the central agencies against Trinamul leaders.

“The arrest of Trinamul heavyweights Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal within 20 days of each other, despite Mamata’s one-on-one with the Prime Minister in Delhi, is irreparable damage in popular perception for Bengal’s ruling party. As far as we know, there will be a lot more happening in these investigations by the central agencies over the next few months,” said a state BJP functionary. “This will benefit none other than the BJP in Bengal.”

The BJP’s Bengal co-minder Amit Malviya, citing one of his tweets from March with a picture of Mamata and Mondal, also tweeted: “Mamata Banerjee patronises criminals like Anubroto Mondal.”

“As Chief Minister and Home Minister of West Bengal, she gives state protection to those who operate crime and extortion syndicates under her watch. Partha Chaterjee or Anubroto Mondal, the buck stops at Mamata Banerjee,” posted the BJP’s IT cell chief on the microblogging site.