BJP targeting 'fearless' TMC with central agencies because it refuses to bow down: Mamata

Launching a blistering attack on the BJP, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that the central agencies were slapping cases on the Trinamool Congress (TMC) because the party refuses to be cowed down from the agencies' pressure tactics. She made the remarks while addressing a public meeting at Bhabanipur in Kolkata on Friday.

The Chief Minister also asked how many cases were registered against CPI(M) leaders who have ruled the State for 34 years.

“They (CBI and ED) even arrested Congress leader P Chidambaram. They have slapped cases on all the leaders of our party because we never surrendered to them. The party which is the most honest and fearless is being targeted,” said Mamata.

She said even senior leaders such as MP Sougata Roy and minister Partha Chatterjee were being targeted by the central agencies.

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The TMC supremo alleged that the BJP manipulated votes at Nandigram during the last Assembly election using central agencies and weapons.

“But they don’t know that Mamata Banerjee does not bow down to anyone. Votes were tampered with at several polling booths in Nandigram,” the CM said.

Dubbing Pegasus as “dangerous”, the Chief Minister alleged that the BJP had snooped on those attending a meeting at her Kalighat office in Kolkata using the Israeli spyware.

“Me, Abhishek (Banerjee) and PK (Prashant Kishor) were talking at my Kalighat office and the BJP watched it through a phone. It was all done with Pegasus,” said Mamata.

Referring to the incidents of police firing on alleged encroachers in Assam and a shoot out inside a court in Delhi, the Chief Minister: said “see what happened in Assam… What kind of humanity is this? But they raise questions on human rights in Bengal.” She also said that to prevent the TMC from holding political programs in Tripura, the BJP government there had imposed prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC.

A bypoll will be held in the Bhabanipur Assembly constituency on September 30. The election was necessitated after TMC’s Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay resigned as MLA to pave the way for Mamata to contest from there. Mamata had earlier lost to BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram by a narrow margin.

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