Union minister Sukanta Majumdar links BJP membership to Rs 3k Annapurna payout, TMC slams ‘deceptive politics’
Times of India | 5 November 2024
BURDWAN: Junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar on Monday said women in Bengal should be told that if they want Rs 3,000 under Annapurna Yojana, they should fill up BJP's membership form.
Majumdar's statement, made at a party workers' conference in East Burdwan's Kalna, prompted Trinamool to ask if he had already forgotten the oath of office administered by the President when he became a Union minister.
Majumdar said: "Go to people and ask them to be BJP members. They will ask why. Tell them this is because it will bring Narendra Modi to office. Explain to women that if you want Annapurna Yojana's Rs 3,000, then you will have to fill up BJP's membership form. BJP will come to office in Bengal and roll out Annapurna Yojana. After that, we will see the membership form. ‘Yes' or ‘no' we are not saying immediately. But we will look at it and reach out to women."
Before the 2023 panchayat polls, leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari had first referred to the Annapurna Yojana, stating that if BJP came to office, they would implement this scheme for women in Bengal, providing Rs 3,000 per month to each beneficiary.
On Monday, Majumdar referred to this promise, only adding that women would need to be BJP members to qualify. Annapurna Yojana mirrors Bengal govt's Lakshmir Bhandar scheme.
Trinamool's former RS MP Kunal Ghosh shot back. "This is deceptive politics. Nothing will come of it. They have stopped funds for Bengal's 100-day work scheme and are now spinning a new story," he said.
TMC MP and senior lawyer Kalyan Banerjee called Majumdar's statements unconstitutional and illegal.
"He is unfit to be a minister. This has become a trademark of BJP to misuse their official position for political purposes. He should be immediately removed from the cabinet, made to read and re-read the Constitution and the oath he took before the President in public," Banerjee said.
"It is India's curse that it has to bear with such petty politics," Banerjee added, reminding that politics had never stood in the way of Bengal govt implementing its social schemes for the poor.
Majumdar, during his speech, also broached the fact that Bengal did not implement the central scheme Ayushman Bharat, which would have helped the elderly. He also claimed that the membership drive would help BJP to come to office in Bengal.