Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over a raid conducted at the house of Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP and asked her not to misuse the police.
Addressing a public meeting in the Kanthi Lok Sabha constituency, the senior BJP leader said that the more Banerjee used such tactics on BJP leaders, the more her Trinamool Congress would lose seats.
“After I landed here (Bengal) yesterday, I got a message that Suvendu Adhikari’s houses were raided by police. Mamata Banerjee is so scared of her party’s defeat that she has resorted to such tactics. Raids were conducted at the houses of your ministers. Rs 51 crore was recovered. After yesterday’s raids, even char anna paisa (25 paisa) could not be recovered,” said Shah.
The police raid at the Nandigram MLA’s house at Kolaghat in Purba Medinipur district came four days before the state is going to the polls on May 25 in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
A large posse of policemen searched Adhikari’s house for a local miscreant who was absconding in a case. However, neither the person nor cash were recovered from the BJP MLA’s house.
Shah said, “We are BJP and we are not scared. If you continue to misuse state police then you will lose the two to four seats which you were likely to win. The more you target Suvendu Adhikari, the more he will rise as a leader against you.”
The Union home minister also claimed that the BJP-led NDA had already won 310 seats in the first five phases of the Lok Sabha polls. “Once we get 30 seats in Bengal, the TMC will crumble and the government will fall in no time,” he said.
Shah further said that widespread political violence had destroyed democracy in Bengal. “The state has become a safe haven for infiltrators. This is nothing but a sin as you (Banerjee) are compromising the security of the country,” he said.
Adhikari has said he will approach the Calcutta High Court against Tuesday’s raid, which according to him was in violation of an order of the court that gave him protection from police action.