CPM wants Mamata booked on black money charge

In a bid to dent the Trinamool arsenal, the CPM wanted Union minister of state for shipping Mukul Roy arrested along with Mamata, for allegedly mobilising a whopping Rs 33.9 crore to fund poll expenses, alleging that it was black money.

State housing minister and CPM central committee member Goutam Deb alleged here on Sunday that the Trinamool Congress provided Rs 15 lakh each to its 226 poll candidates. It should provide all documents regarding the source of money. “Both these leaders should be arrested,” Deb said.

In a scathing reaction, Mamata Banerjee said during an election rally at Haringhata in Nadia district that Trinamool would file a defamation suit against Deb on Monday. Deb accepted the challenge and claimed that he would prove the charges.

“I won't respond to anyone and everyone; our party will answer all such queries on funds from the Election Commission and obviously not to the kingpins of land-grabbers. The Income tax department unearthed crores of money from the former CPM Rajya Sabha member in a three-day raid on her apartments. Let the CPM clear its own mud before indulging in mud-slinging,” Banerjee said.

Regarding the use of helicopters for campaigning, she claimed the chopper had been provided by the Congress. She  wondered who had paid for the helicopter used by the CPM during the Lok Sabha polls in 2004 and 2009 besides the 2006 Assembly elections .   
“Pranabda (Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee) has asked me (to use the helicopter),” she clarified.

With the EC cracking its whip strictly this time, all election expenses have to be submitted by candidates to the commission within a stipulated time period.

“Even a special observer has been deployed by the EC to monitor in detail the day-to-day expenditure of every candidate,” TMC leader Partha Chatterjee pointed out. “This person (Deb) must have lost his mind as all the poll forecasts have predicted a landslide victory of Trinamool in the Assembly polls,” he said.