Chatterjee was arrested in 2022 by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the alleged West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment scam after marathon raids at his residence. He is currently lodged at the Presidency Correctional Home. Several TMC leaders and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha were arrested by the central probe agencies for their alleged involvement in the case.
Speaking to a Bengali TV channel on Thursday, Ghosh said “Not only Partha Chatterjee, many more leaders are involved in the job scam. One minister who is involved in this scam is still in the cabinet and he was not even warned by the party (TMC) leadership.”
Ghosh’s comments come after the Calcutta High Court cancelled the appointment of 25,573 teaching and non-teaching staff through the recruitment process of State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools, declaring the selection process as “null and void”.
Considered a trusted lieutenant of TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, Ghosh also praised BJP’s Nandigram MLA Suvendu Adhikari’s performance as a Leader of Opposition in the state. “I may not like the politics of Suvendu Adhikari but I must say he is performing well across the state as a Opposition leader. But, why has Sudip Bandyopadhyay never gone to any constituency? Was he not interested or not accepted?”
At the same time, Ghosh said that he was “still with the TMC”. “When a worker like me says something, it becomes a subject of indiscipline. But when some hired film artistes say something against the party, it never becomes a subject of punishment,” said Ghosh. On Thursday, Ghosh was also dropped from TMC’s list of campaigners for the Lok Sabha elections, sources said.
Adhikari chose to play down Ghosh’s comments and said the matter was between TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek. “This is exclusively a subject for aunt and nephew (Mamata and Abhishek Banerjee). TMC is a private limited company and Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee are the owners of that company. The rest are all employees of the company. It is the owners’ prerogative who will stay or who will be removed,” the BJP MLA said.
Reacting to his party colleague’s allegations, TMC’s former Rajya Sabha MP Shantanu Sen said, “Many times, we meet Opposition leaders and exchange greetings. This doesn’t mean that I am believing in their ideology. We can’t deny Kunal Ghosh’s contribution to the party.”
Meanwhile, the Congress said Ghosh’s statement proved that the chief minister knew about the alleged school jobs scam. “After Kunal Ghosh’s statement, it is proved that Mamata Banerjee knew about the whole scam and she is basically lying. She is the head of all corruption done by the TMC,” said Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy.
On Wednesday, Ghosh attended a blood donation camp in Kolkata Uttar Lok Sabha seat along with Roy, who is the BJP candidate from the constituency. The TMC has fielded Bandyopadhyay, who is the sitting MP from the seat.
He also said that Roy was the most competent candidate among all those who were in fray from Kolkata Uttar seat. Soon after the programme, he was removed from the post of TMC state general secretary. Later during the day, he told a news channel: “The party (TMC) was well aware of the fact that large scale corruption and extortion in lieu of jobs was taking place in the school education department. The party was aware of it even before the 2021 Assembly polls.”
“Due to the scam in the education department, Partha Chatterjee was shifted to the industry department from the education ministry after the party returned to power for the third consecutive term in 2021,” he had said.