Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, addressing her party leaders and workers on Thursday, lashed out at the BJP and the CPM over "corruption" and warned the saffron camp that if central agencies could arrest four of her MLAs, she could get eight rival MLAs arrested on charges lodged against them.
She said: "They have sent four of our MLAs to jail considering they would bring (down) the numbers this way. If they send four of our MLAs, I can send eight of them to jail on murder and other charges."
Picking out the BJP on several counts of corruption in the country, Mamata questioned the Centre’s several disinvestment initiatives, including the one involving Air India.
“What was the deal? They have sold off everything. Where did the money go?” the chief minister asked at the Trinamul meeting on the movement to demand the release of central funds.
She added that the banking sector was in the doldrums and the PSUs were being sold by the BJP-led central government.
She took on the BJP on cow smuggling. “Cows are being brought to Bengal from several states, including (BJP-ruled) UP, for smuggling to Bangladesh…. Who takes the cut there?” she asked.
Mamata focused on the “use of central agencies” against leaders of her party.
“Today you (indicating BJP leaders) are laughing because our party leaders Anubrata Mondal, Partha Chatterjee, Manik Bhattacharya, Jyoti Priya Mallick and a few other leaders are in jail… In future, when you would no longer be in the chair, where would you be? In a cell?” Mamata asked.
“Balu (Jyoti Priya Mallick) has been put in jail. He was beaten up. These (Trinamul leaders) are my long-time associates. I don’t believe they are thieves,” Mamata said.
She indicated nobody would come to stand by the BJP leaders once they were out of power.
“You (the BJP) think that you will do anything because you are in power at the Centre. You are using ED and CBI against the Trinamul… In the coming days, the same officers will go after you and no one will be there to give you protection,” the Trinamul chief said.
Accusing the CPM of perpetrating corruption, she equated the party with a team of pickpockets.
“The CPM, which has indulged in corrupt ways and gathered funds through corruption, shouts the most while alleging corruption. They are like members of a pickpocket team who shout when someone’s pocket is picked.... They have become zero in Bengal and will remain zero,” the chief minister added.
Sources said Mamata went after the BJP and the CPM with allegations of corruption against them to lift the morale of her party workers ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Rivals retort
BJP MLA and leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday threatened to lodge an FIR against Mamata after she warned BJP leaders of arrest in the wake of central agencies arresting Trinamul leaders.
"I will lodge an FIR against the chief minister for her comment. The Netaji Indoor Stadium falls under the Hare Street police station area. I will go there to file an FIR against her (Mamata)," Adhikari told reporters at Joynagar.
BJP Bengal chief Sukanta Majumdar said: "Let her start with me. I can ensure any of the eight BJP leaders arrested by Mamata Banerjee's government will get a clean chit from the court as no one is involved in coal smuggling, cow smuggling or selling government jobs."
The CPM slammed both the BJP and Trinamul.
"This is not a subject of four or eight MLAs or leaders. a large number from both the BJP and Trinamul, including their MPs and MLAs, should go to jail," said CPM's state committee secretary Md Salim.
