Party was aware of school recruitment scam before 2021 assembly polls: TMC leader Kunal Ghosh

Kolkata: Senior TMC leader Kunal Ghosh on Wednesday claimed that the party was aware of the school recruitment scam even before the 2021 assembly polls, hours after he was removed from the post of the party's state general secretary.

The damaging statement from Ghosh, considered close to TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, came amidst the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, as the SSC scam has escalated into a significant issue in the polls.

Ghosh was removed from the post hours after he shared a stage with a BJP Lok Sabha candidate and praised him.

"The party was well aware of the fact that largescale corruption and extortion in lieu of jobs were taking place in the school education department. The party was aware of it even before the 2021 assembly polls," he said in an interview with Bengali news channel ABP Ananda.

Ghosh, who has been seeking more prominence for next-generation leaders and was at loggerheads with the old guards in the TMC, said it was due to this 'information about large-scale corruption that Partha Chatterjee was shifted to the industry department from the education ministry after the party returned to power for the third consecutive term in 2021'.

Ghosh's remarks came a week after the Calcutta High Court declared the recruitment process of the State Level Selection Test-2016 (SLST) in West Bengal government-sponsored and aided schools as 'null and void', ordering the cancellation of all appointments made through it.

Around 26,000 people have lost jobs following the court order. The TMC leadership had maintained that the party was not aware of the scam until the arrest of Chatterjee took place in 2022.

TMC leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in July 2022 for his alleged involvement in the SSC scam. Chatterjee was shown the door by the party following his arrest. He was also removed from the state cabinet.

Several TMC leaders and TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya and Jiban Krishna Saha were arrested by the CBI for their alleged involvement in the scam.