Their umpire, their bat, their ball, their pitch: Derek O'Brien on BJP and EC

We always knew it (Election Commission) was a hidden ally, the TMC MP said

As politics over Covid rages on, a battle for the throne of West Bengal is also taking place alongside.

Senior Trinamool Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Derek O'Brien thinks that 'outsiders' BJP have a new ally in the Election Commission and the party carries on corruption in a 'wholesale way'.

Also read: Why is the BJP desperate to win the Bengal battle?

Speaking to The Indian Express, O'Brien acknowledged the popularity of Modi even as he likened it to the popularity of Hitler. "Modi is a popular leader. Do you think Hitler was not a popular leader?" However, he believes that the current team of the party may not be able to work together as a team as too many people turned to the party just ahead of the polls and it may not work for the Bengal BJP in the long run.

"One is the ‘BJP Original’, which is Dilip Ghosh’s BJP… Then there is a ‘BJP B’, which has those who left the Trinamool Congress five years ago. And the third one is ‘BJP Tatkal’, made of those who joined the party in the last three-four months for various reasons…, these three BJPs cannot function together," he told the publication.

O'Brien also said that the saffron party comes armed with both money and a strong ally -- the Election Commission. We always knew it was a hidden ally, but in the last two weeks the extremely compromised Election Commission (EC) has come out openly as their ally.

"We always knew it was a hidden ally, but in the last two weeks the extremely compromised Election Commission has come out openly as their ally," he said.

O'Brien said that the TMC and he had written to the EC several times for curtailing the polls amid the Covid situation but the EC has paid no heed to their demands.
"As far as the BJP goes, it is their umpire, their bat, their ball, their pitch… But we still have to play the match"

On the issue of corruption and the cut money charge against the TMC, O'Brien thinks the party has had the humility to undergo a course correction whenever such things were brought to its notice. "If the Trinamool has small-time retail corruption down the line, the BJP has corporate, wholesale corruption," O'Brien said.

He also alleged that the BJP has the same ministers who, when they were in the TMC were called corrupt and are now in top positions in the party. "Suvendu Adhikari, Mukul Roy have suddenly all become angels," he said.

The senior TMC leader also justified the 'outsider' jab against the BJP by saying that the party is an outsider not because they are non-Bengali or have a different last name but because they appeal to Bengal voters and claim it as their own only before elections. "Outsiders are those who like the BJP have come into Bengal two months ago to suck the state for votes," he said.