Addressing party workers at the annual Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata, Abhishek accused the BJP government at the Centre of showing discrimination while initiating central agency probes.
“A day after July 21 in 2022, the ED (Enforcement Directorate) raided the house of former state education minister Partha Chatterjee and arrested him. We don’t shield anyone who has made mistakes and we do not allow injustice. But if Partha Chatterjee’s house can be raided by the central agencies in the SSC recruitment scam and he can be arrested, then why shouldn’t Dharmendra Pradhan be arrested and his house be raided for the NEET scam, which is the biggest scam in India since Independence. Why this discrimination,” asked the TMC’s Diamond Harbour MP.
The BJP hit back. “Abhishek Banerjee is trying to mix everything. There is no evidence that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan or his Ministry is involved in the NEET paper leak case. But in the case of the SSC recruitment scam, Mamata Banerjee was involved. There is no point making baseless allegations against the BJP when his own party leaders are in jail on charges of corruption,” said state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar.
Earlier at the rally, Abhishek, the number two in the TMC, cited the party’s performance in the recent Lok Sabha elections and said the people of West Bengal have driven out the BJP from the state and “taught Prime Minister Narendra Modi a big lesson”.
Stating that the party lost some Lok Sabha seats with a narrow margin, Abhishek said: “We won 29 seats this time (Lok Sabha polls)… We have 13 MPs in the Rajya Sabha. I am sure everyone will be very proud to know that if we combine Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, TMC will be the third-largest party in this country. The ones who had said they would make TMC ancient history or put us in jail have been wiped out themselves.”
“The ones who said “Abki Baar, 400 Paar” were stopped at 240. The ones who had said “Abki Baar, 200 Paar” in Bengal were also limited to 70 by the people. After coming to power at the Centre in 2014, the BJP repeatedly misused Central agencies to insult the TMC but ended up insulting Bengal. Two months before the elections, they kept crying hoarse about the Sandeshkhali conspiracy, which was weaponised by the BJP to malign Bengal in the entire country. Yet, the Lok Sabha constituency, that houses Sandeshkhali, voted for Trinamool with a margin of over 3.50 lakh votes,” said Abhishek.
He also warned of action against TMC leaders who remained inactive during the polls. “Those who think that they will work in different ways in different polls, will face action. In the past month, I did not participate in any events because I was busy reviewing election results. Within the next three months, everyone will be able to see the results. I am a man of my word and I always keep my promises. Those councillors or in panchayat think that after winning elections they won’t work in the Lok Sabha polls as it is Mamata Banerjee’s responsibility, they will face action,” he said.
“I give my word that those panchayat representatives, councillors, municipality chairpersons, or vice-chairpersons who did not reach out to people or were unable to deliver results in the Lok Sabha polls, will face similar action,” he added.