Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP will stop TMC's corruption and 'cut money' culture, says Amit Shah

Addressing a rally at Karandighi in Raiganj constituency, Shah said the BJP has set a target of winning 35 Lok Sabha seats from West Bengal.

Kolkata: Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress government over issues of corruption. “The Calcutta High Court yesterday gave a judgment canceling thousands of appointments made through the 2016 teacher recruitment test. It is a matter of shame that jobs were sold for lakhs of rupees. They have taken Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 15 lakh as bribes for jobs. It means if you do not have Rs 15 lakh rupees, how will you get a job for your brothers and sons?” Shah said at a rally in Raiganj, where he was seeking votes for BJP candidate Kartick Paul.

“This cut money culture (the practice of extorting money from contractors) and corruption must end in West Bengal. I want to know whether this should stop or not. The TMC can never stop it; only the BJP can stop it,” said the Union Home Minister.

The scam had come under national focus in July 2022 when Partha Chatterjee, who had been holding the office of the education minister of the TMC’s government in West Bengal then, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff of the schools. The ED had recovered a huge stash of cash along with other valuables from properties linked with him and his aide Arpita Mukherjee.

“Rs 51 crore were recovered from the residence of TMC minister Partha Chatterjee. What action was taken against him?”

Chatterjee was suspended from the TMC and removed from the state cabinet in July 2022 after he was arrested by the ED.

TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, sought to turn the table on the BJP by accusing the saffron party of using the judiciary to take away jobs from people instead of providing them with employment.

“We give jobs in West Bengal. You move the court to take it away,” Banerjee said at an election rally of the TMC in Birbhum on Tuesday, criticising the BJP-led Union Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for growing unemployment in the country.

The CM promised to move the Supreme Court challenging the order of the High Court.