As Mamata Banerjee started her sit-in to protest the BJP-led Union government's alleged discriminatory attitude against the state on Wednesday, the BJP West Bengal unit organised a protest programme here against alleged massive corruption in public recruitment and loot of central funds by the ruling TMC.
Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, while speaking at the protest programme, urged the voters to focus on 'No vote to TMC' in the next panchayat polls and Lok Sabha elections in the state to give momentum to the 'oust Mamata Banerjee government' call.
"The TMC is running one of the most corrupt governments the people of West Bengal have ever witnessed since independence. Trinamool means a party of thieves and dacoits. The TMC leaders are only busy filling their pockets by selling jobs or taking bribes. The corrupt regime has to be ousted from power, and the BJP will get it done in days to come," Adhikari said.
Sitting on a makeshift stage, BJP leaders were seen carrying placards citing various corruption cases in the state.
"Mamata Banerjee initially said she would hold the rally as chief minister. But from the stage, it seems its a rally of the TMC. As the stage has the party symbol of the TMC. So the chief minister now says she is holding the sit-in demonstration as TMC supremo. So you can see the double standard of the TMC," he said.
Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday started her two-day sit-in demonstration in Kolkata to protest the BJP-led Union government's alleged discriminatory attitude against the state. Banerjee, accompanied by senior party leaders Firhad Hakim, Aroop Biswas, Subrata Bakshi and Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, reached the venue in front of Dr B R Ambedkar's statue on Red Road around noon and started her protest against the Centre's alleged stoppage of funds to the state for MGNREGA and other schemes of the housing and road departments.
West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said the dharna by Banerjee is a ploy to divert attention from the "failures and corruption" scandals that have plagued Bengal's ruling party.
"The TMC has sensed that it is fast losing public support, so it is organising this dharna to divert people's attention. The TMC is spreading lies about the Centre not releasing MNREGA funds. The Bengal government had not given the expenditure details for the last three years. How will they give the details, as they have looted the public money?" he questioned.
Referring to senior TMC leader Anubrata Mondal being taken to Tihar jail by the Enforcement Directorate in a cattle smuggling case, Majumdar said the day is not far away when the TMC will have to change its name to "Tihar Congress from Trinamool Congress" as most of its top leaders will be jailed there soon.
Reacting to BJP's protest rally, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the rally was an attempt by the BJP to put up a picture of the united house. "It is an attempt by the BJP to put up a united picture as neither Sukanta Majumdar nor Suvendu Adhikari nor Dilip Ghosh are on the same page. And regarding losing public support, the BJP should be rather worried about whether it could retain the number of seats it had won in 2019," he said.
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