Tag: Trinamool

  • Trinamool slams BJP over issue of allocation of funds for rail projects in Bengal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The TMC on Sunday lashed out at the BJP over its assertion that it has allocated the highest-ever funds for railway works in West Bengal, and claimed the state has been deprived of funds for years and multiple rail projects shelved.

    The allocation of Rs 6,636 crore to poll-bound West Bengal is the highest-ever funds earmarked for the state in the history of Indian Railways, minister Piyush Goyal had said soon after the Union Budget was announced, blaming successive state governments for the delay in rail projects in the state.

    Taking to Twitter, TMC MP and national spokesperson Derek O’Brien said, “In election season, BJP’s tourist gang are touting ‘record Railway allocation’ for Bengal. The truth is, multiple rail projects have been shelved in Bengal and funding choked all these years.”

    Posting two documents, O’Brien has highlighted “How Bengal has been deprived of Railways funds for years.”

    In the document, the Rajya Sabha MP has highlighted how over one dozen rail factories across Bengal, initiated by Mamata Banerjee when she was the Minister of Railways, have received only a token financial allocation this year.

    “The new rail coach manufacturing unit at Kanchrapara had been allocated Rs 74 lakh in the last budget. This year the allocation is just Rs 1,000. (One thousand rupees, not a typo!),” he said.

    He further said in Budget 2020 the Centre shelved 20 new connectivity ventures and 10 upgradation projects launched by Banerjee as Minister of Railways, especially in rural Bengal.

    “In Budget 2019 the Sealdah Coach Repair Factory – One thousand rupees Rail Museum in Bolpur – One thousand rupees! Coach Washing Workshop in Howrah – One thousand rupees!The list goes on,” he said.

    Accusing the BJP of only focussing on states in election year, he said that from 2016-17 to 2020-21, no new lines in Railways were announced in South-Eastern Railways, let alone Bengal.

    In 2020-21, four new projects were announced for SER but all of them went to Odisha and not Bengal.

    Banerjee had inaugurated the East-West metro corridor as the Rail Minister.

    “The BJP government has allocated funds very slowly for it since 2014. Kolkata Metro received an outlay of Rs 850 crore for 2019-20 which came down to Rs 750 crore in 2020-21. Come election year and this outlay is Rs 1330 crore, ” he said.

    O’Brien also alleged that BJP states benefitted at the expense of the rest of India, citing two examples of the the bullet train project and the broad gauge like in Surendranagar in Rajkot.

    He also highlighted how in Budget 2020-21, Rs 980 crore was sanctioned for the National Railway University in Gujarat.

    The Railway minister has said that there is no shortage of funds for the state and blamed the political dispensations for the delay in execution of works.

    West Bengal has 53 ongoing projects including new lines, gauge conversion, doubling projects costing Rs 48,275 crore for 4,463 km.

    “The allocation for West Bengal is the highest-ever in the history of Indian Railways. It is 2.5 times the average amount allocated between Budget 2009-2014 and 26 per cent more than last year,” he had said while addressing a press briefing recently.

    “Projects there remain incomplete or are delayed because the state governments – first it was the Left front government and now the TMC– have been unable to provide land to us. Projects which are 45 year old are pending in the state. I appeal to Mamata didi to expedite the process and give us land,” he had said.

    Goyal said that due to non-availability of land, as many as 34 projects in the state have received only token allotment in the budget 2021-22.

  • Farmers protests: Delhi Police stops 15 Opposition MPs from reaching Ghazipur border

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Fifteen MPs from 10 opposition parties, including the SAD, DMK, NCP and the Trinamool Congress, were stopped by police from reaching Ghazipur border on Thursday to meet farmers protesting against new farm laws, a leader said.

    According to SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal who coordinated the visit, the leaders were not allowed to cross the barricades and reach the protest site.

    Besides Badal, Supriya Sule from NCP, Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva from the DMK, Saugata Roy from the TMC were part of the delegation.

    Members of the National Conference, RSP and the IUML were also part of it.

    During a discussion in Parliament on Wednesday, several opposition parties asked the government to withdraw the three contentious farm laws without making it a prestige issue and not to treat the agitating farmers as “enemies”.

    Stringent security continued at Ghazipur on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border, one of the key protest sites where thousands of farmers are camping with a demand that the Centre repeal the new agri-marketing laws enacted last September.

    Meanwhile, nails that were fixed near barricades at the Ghazipur border were being repositioned, with security arrangment remaining same at the protest sites.

    “Videos and photos are getting circulated in which it’s shown that nails are being taken off Ghazipur. These are just being repositioned. Position of arrangement at border remains the same,” said Delhi Police.

    They recently cemented nails near barricades at Ghazipur (Delhi-Uttar Pradesh) and Tikri (Delhi-Haryana) borders.

    Also, police have heavily barricaded the Ghazipur border. Barbed wire and cement barricades have been planted on the roads to restrict the movement of the farmers.

    Farmers have been protesting against three of the Centre’s laws: Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020.

    Opposition leaders, including Kanimozhi, Supriya Sule and Harsimrat Kaur Badal, were stopped from reaching #GhazipurBorder.Express photo | @parveennegi1.#FarmersProtest pic.twitter.com/lFgs4qNYKO
    — The New Indian Express (@NewIndianXpress) February 4, 2021

    The protesting farmers have expressed the apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the minimum support price (MSP) system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

    However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.

    Eleven rounds of formal talks between the government and the protesting farmer unions have failed to break the deadlock.

    While unions have stuck to their main demand of repeal of the laws and legal guarantee of MSP, the government has offered some concessions including keeping these laws on hold for 1-1.5 years.

    Even the Supreme Court has stayed the laws for two months and set up a panel to look into the matter.

    (With ANI Inputs)

  • Bengal polls: Violence returns to Nandigram, threatens to break brittle peace

    By PTI
    NADIGRAM: Memories of the dark days of the anti-land acquisition movement, when they hunkered down in paddy fields as marauding hordes roamed about terrorising people, have returned to haunt Nandigram.

    Staccato sounds of gunfire are once again breaking the fragile peace of this small town in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district where violent clashes between ruling TMC supporters and those of the BJP have become commonplace in the run up to the assembly elections to be held in a few months from now.

    “For the last three days, we have been spending sleepless nights,” says 62-year-old Shyamal Manna as gunshots frequently ring out near his mud house.

    Manna, who lost his sister-in-law during the bloody anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram in 2007-2008, and scores of others like him are a disqueted lot ever since former TMC heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari switched over to the BJP, setting the stage for an electoral showdown that has left the locals fidgety and on edge.

    “For the last two weeks, every day, skirmishes have broken out. Earlier, we witnessed only political violence, but now it has turned communal, too. Sounds of explosions and gunshots have snatched away our sleep. All this is so reminiscent of the bloody Nandigram movement,” Manna told PTI.

    His nephew Gokul said his wife and children have stopped venturing out altogether.

    “At times, I feel like leaving this place and settling somewhere else. I lost my mother due to this violence. I don’t let my wife and children go out of the house these days,” he said.

    A blood-soaked Nandigram, a little known semi-urban landscape that shot to national limelight in 2007, had jolted the mighty Left Front government and laid the foundation of the TMC dispensation in West Bengal, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, then an opposition leader, leading the anti-land acquisition stir from the front.

    Several women were gangraped and many people killed, including 14 in police firing, during the 10-month-long political violence, at some point of which residents turned the area into a no-man’s land, digging up roads and making villages inaccessible.

    In present-day Nandigram, the battle lines seem to have been redrawn after Banerjee announced her candidature from the seat, the home turf of Adhikari, who has asserted he will defeat his former boss by “at least 50,000 votes” if fielded from the contituency, Kavita Mal of Gokulpur village, whose house was set on fire in 2007, feels dark days await Nandigram.

    “I had received five bullet injuries back then. Somehow, I survived by God’s grace. After TMC came to power in 2011, we thought the place will be peaceful. But now, it seems that violence has come back to haunt us,” she said.

    Soma Pradhan (name changed), 45, who was gangraped 14 years ago amid the massive protests against land acquisition by the erstwhile Left Front government for creation of a special economic zone, said she and her family don’t leave home after dusk.

    “The situation is not good. Our neighbours have seen masked men roaming around in the villages at night,” Pradhan said.

    According to police sources, clashes between activists of the two parties have become frequent in the last few weeks, with TMC and BJP offices being vandalised and set on fire.

    “For the last few years, there were hardly any instances of violence. But, circumstances have changed drastically in the last few months. Every day there are sporadic incidents. Some don’t even get reported,” said a police officer.

    Sources in the both the parties admit that things took a dramatic turn after Adhikari and his brother moved over to the BJP.

    “Over the last 10 years, Nandigram and its surrounding villages were considered TMC bastions with virtually no opposition. However, now it is the TMC versus turncoats of the TMC,” local Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) leader Bhabani Prasad Das, who was part of the Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC), told PTI.

    The BUPC had launched an aggressive resistance against forcible land acquisition.

    Following the Nandigram movement, the entire East Midnapore district turned into an impregnable fortress of the TMC, but after Adhikari’s move, several villages overnight switched sides and rival camps took control of party offices, the sources said.

    Even as Gokulpur, Gokulnagar, Gopimohanpur, Adhikaripara and Heria have turned into strongholds of the BJP, Sonachura, Haripur, Khejuri, Brindaban Chak, Daudpur, and Tekhali remain faithful to the ruling party, they said.

    Radha Rani Ari (name changed), who was also gangraped during the brutal stir, said except for Adhikari, no other leader of any party inquired about the condition of the hapless victims all these years.

    “During the CPI(M) regime, we were used as pawns, and now during the TMC rule, too, violence and rape are used as political tools to settle scores and dominate the area. It is the locals like us who suffer,” she said.

    “Menfolk from the villages have formed groups to keep vigil at night. A few days back, some of the thatched roof houses were set on fire, and food grains and poultry looted,” said Joydeb Mondal of Adhikaripara.

    Sheikh Sufiyan, a senior TMC leader and deputy chairman of East Midnapore Zilla Parishad, alleged Adhikari and his men are trying to vitiate the atmosphere.

    “There was no sign of the BJP in Nandigram. It is Suvendu Adhikari, who helped the saffron party gain ground here. Now, he wants to bring back the days of anarchy. We will never allow that to happen,” he said.

    The BJP district leadership, which had gone hammer and tongs at the TMC over its alleged Muslim appeasement politics, said the ruling party is the one fuelling communal violence in the region.

    “The TMC is using brute force and has brought people from outside to terrorise the locals ahead of the assembly polls. Police is just a mute spectator,” BJP Tamluk district general secretary Gour Hari Maity alleged.

    The TMC had pocketed all the 16 seats in East Midnapore district in the last assembly polls, the next edition of which is due in April-May.

  • Those saying Abhishek will be next Bengal CM are trying to create confusion: Trinamool hits back at Shah

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress said on Sunday that Mamata Banerjee will be the chief minister of West Bengal for the third time when the party is voted to power, asserting that those suggesting her nephew Abhishek Banerjee will be appointed to the top post are trying to create confusion.

    Speaking to reporters, senior TMC MP and spokesperson Saugata Roy said that the party has made it clear time and again that it is contesting the upcoming elections with Banerjee as the chief ministerial face.

    “Everyone knows that Mamata Banerjee will be our chief minister for the third time. How can Amit Shah make such a claim? There has been no talk in the party to appoint Abhishek as the future CM. Such claims are only aimed to create confusion,” Roy said.

    Addressing a BJP rally in Howrah virtually, Shah claimed that the agenda of the TMC dispensation is to make Banerjee’s nephew the next chief minister of the state.

    Hitting out at BJP leader Rajib Banerjee, Roy said that people like him are certainly “traitors” as they enjoyed every benefit of staying in power and deserted the party just before the elections.

    Rajib, who switched over to the BJP from TMC on Saturday, told the rally in Howrah that the more the leaders who changed sides are called traitors, the more they will get people’s support.

    Speaking at a press conference, TMC leader and state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that leaders who are coming to the state ahead of the elections to “mislead the people” are justly called “outsiders”, in an apparent reference to Shah.

    She said people of different communities living in the state are not branded “outsiders” by her party, but those coming to the state for making false claims.

    Without naming anyone, Bhattacharya said MPs from Uttar Pradesh, “an unemployed” politician from Madhya Pradesh, a leader from Gujarat are coming to the state before the polls to mislead the people.

  • With Nadda, Shah at helm, BJP starts early to build Bengal poll campaign on ground

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Even as an internal assessment shows the party reaching the halfway mark in the 294-member Bengal Assembly, BJP strategists are acutely aware of the well-oiled cadre of the ruling Trinamool Congress. 

    The BJP has taken an early start to the campaign for the Bengal election which is due in April-May. Former BJP chief Amit Shah and his successor J P Nadda are leading the saffron charge, with the former pushing the party leaders with the target to win over 200 seats.

    “The assessment within the party currently is that reaching the halfway mark is within the reach in the prevailing situations. The exodus of TMC leaders is giving the BJP much attention in the state. But the real challenge lies when the electioneering in the real sense begins and the manner in which the TMC responds to the BJP’s campaign,” said a senior BJP strategist. 

    The BJP strategists are monitoring on the alignment of the TMC cadre and the possible understanding with the Left-Congress combine on the ground.

    “The principal challenge remains to build the campaign on the ground, particularly in rural areas. This may get a boost with the induction of the TMC veterans who are regional satraps. But the TMC has an edge because of the strength of its cadre and the appeal of Mamata,” added the BJP strategist.       

    Within the BJP, the party leaders are counting on two scenarios on hypothetical joining of the forces from the ranks of TMC and the Left and the Congress. 

    “Either the BJP may not be able to build the campaign on the ground, which may restrict the party to two digits, or the ideological contradictions in rival camps may give a groundswell to take it beyond 200 seats on the lines of Uttar Pradesh. The BJP will need to match up to the power of the Trinamool and the Left on the polling booth level,” said a senior BJP functionary.  

    The BJP campaign is currently seen around Shah and Nadda, with major thrust on promises to implement Central schemes, including PM-Kisan Nidhi, Ayushman Bharat and others.

  • To protest against arrest of dad, Bengal BJP leader’s daughter refuses to receive bicycle from Mamata government

    By PTI
    SURI: A Class 10 girl in West Bengal’s Birbhum district has refused to receive a free bicycle from the state government to protest against the arrest of her father who is a local BJP leader, the headmaster of her school said on Saturday.

    Moutrisha Dey, a student of Kusumi High School in Rampurhat subdivision of the district, wrote a letter to the authorities of the institute saying that she would not receive the bicycle as her father was arrested allegedly in false cases.

    “Biycles under the Sabuj Sathi scheme were distributed among students on Friday. She refused to accept it. We have informed the higher authorities and returned the cycle,” the headmaster of the school, Srikanta Mondal, said.

    Free bicycles are distributed to students from classes 9 to 12 in government and government-aided schools and madrasas of the state under the Sabuj Sathi (green companion) scheme.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched the scheme in 2015.

    The schoolgirl alleged that the police arrested her father on September 17, 2020, after implicating him in false cases.

    “We had to suffer a lot while my father was in police custody and judicial custody,” Dey told the media.

    Her father Sushanta Dey, the president of Mayureshwar-II block of the BJP, claimed that the police filed one case after another against him on the basis of false allegations last year and he is now out on bail.

    “I had to spend 35 days in police custody and jail custody,” he said.

    The decision of not receiving the bicycle was taken by his daughter, he said.

    Local leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress, however, alleged that the girl did not accept the bicycle at the instigation of her father ahead of the assembly elections due in April-May.

  • Rajib Banerjee, other disgruntled Trinamool leaders join BJP ahead of Bengal polls

    By PTI
    KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: A day after quitting the Trinamool Congress, former West Bengal minister Rajib Banerjee joined the BJP in New Delhi on Saturday along with a few other disgruntled leaders of the state’s ruling party in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

    Banerjee and MLAs Prabir Ghosal and Baishali Dalmiya, who was expelled from the TMC a few days ago, former Howrah Mayor Rathin Chakraborty and actor Rudranil Ghosh flew to the national capital on a special plane from Kolkata, and met central BJP leaders.

    They have joined the BJP, party general secretary and the party’s Bengal minder Kailash Vijayvargiya told PTI following the meeting.

    Later, Shah tweeted, “Former TMC leaders Mr. Rajib Banerjee, Ms. Baishali Dalmiya, Mr. Prabir Ghoshal, Mr. Rathin Chakraborti and Mr. Rudranil Ghosh joined BJP today in New Delhi. I am sure their induction will further strengthen BJP’s fight for Sonar Bangla.”

    BJP national vice-president Mukul Roy and Vijayvargiya arrived in Delhi with them.

    “Kailash Ji and I are at the Hon’ble HM Shri Amit Shah Ji’s residence with former TMC leaders,” Roy tweeted welcoming the new entrants into the saffron party.

    The TMC, which has been facing dissent from a number of leaders ahead of the assembly election due in April-May, said that those who are leaving do not have a long political history and they will fail to create much impact.

    Earlier on December 19, in the biggest single-day exodus from the TMC, political heavyweight Suvendu Adhikari, along with 35 party leaders, including five MLAs and an MP, had joined the BJP during Amit Shah’s rally in Medinipur.

    Rajib Banerjee earlier in the day said he had a word with Union Home Minister Amit Shah who called him to the national capital.

    “After I resigned from the TMC, I received a call from the BJP leadership. Amit Shah ji told me to come over to Delhi. He also requested me to pass on the information to five other important public figures who wanted to serve people in a better way to accompany me.”

    “If I get an assurance on the state’s development, if I get an assurance that I can work for the betterment of people, I will join the BJP,” he told reporters at the Kolkata airport.

    When asked what role does he expect to play in the BJP, Banerjee said it is for the party to decide.

    “I want to work for the people. So whatever role is assigned to me, I will accept,” he said.

    Instead of mudslinging at each other, the Centre and the West Bengal government should work together for the people of the state, the suave 47-year-old leader said.

    Actor Rudranil Ghosh, who has recently been voicing his discontent over the issue of governance in Bengal and alleged corruption in the distribution of monetary compensation to Cyclone Amphan-affected people last year, said he wants to work for people and play an important role in the state in future.

    Uttarpara MLA Prabir Ghosal recently alleged that repair of a road in his constituency was not being allowed by a faction of the party to harm his poll prospects.

    According to BJP sources, these TMC leaders were supposed to join the saffron party during Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally at Dumurjula in Howrah on Sunday.

    However, Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal was cancelled at the last minute.

    The ruling TMC in West Bengal was rocked by a fresh bout of desertions on Friday with Banerjee quitting the party and several other leaders rallying behind him.

    Reacting to the development, senior TMC MP and party spokesperson Sougata Ray said, “Those who left don’t have a long political history and most of them were inducted into the party by Mamata Banerjee. In future, the TMC will be careful.”

    Another senior TMC leader and minister Subrata Mukherjee said, “What can we do if anyone wants to go? Ours is a big party. We cannot prevent dissenters by deploying military. But they will fail to create much impact.”

    TMC minister Jyotipriyo Mallick said that it has to be seen how these leaders fare in the polls if they decide to contest.

    “We are none without Mamata Banerjee. We had been contesting elections in her name,” he said.

    Veteran CPI(M) leader and West Bengal Left Front chairman Biman Bose claimed that there is little difference between the TMC and the BJP and both lack ethics.

  • Trinamool goons hurled bombs at my residence: Bengal MLA who joined BJP

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal MLA Tapasi Mondal on Friday alleged that crude bombs were hurled at her residence in Purba Medinipur by “TMC goons”, in an attempt to “create fear psychosis” among locals ahead of the assembly elections.

    The Haldia legislator, who recently switched to the BJP from the CPI(M), hoped that the police would take necessary action in the matter.

    “I woke up to the sound of a huge blast at 3 am (on Friday). I saw some people fleeing the area near my residence, which is in Durgachowk. They had hurled three bombs, but two didn’t explode and were lying inside the residential complex. This was done to create fear psychosis,” she said.

    Local TMC leaders, however, denied any involvement in the incident.

    Mondal said she sought help from the police, following which the two bombs were defused.

    “I have registered a complaint with the police. I hope the police will act against the TMC goons,” Mondal told PTI.

    A senior police officer said the matter was under investigation.

    According to saffron camp sources, Haldia has been witnessing political disturbances since Suvendu Adhikari, who wields considerable influence in the area, switched to the BJP from the ruling TMC.

  • ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan at Netaji event: Trinamool likely to move censure motion in Bengal Assembly

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Monday said that it is likely to move a censure motion in the West Bengal assembly over raising of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan at an official programme to celebrate the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, claiming that it was an insult to the freedom fighter as well as the chief minister.

    Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday refused to speak at the event attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised by a section of the audience just before she was to start her address at the Victoria Memorial Hall in Kolkata.

    “The BJP is regularly insulting the icons of Bengal. No one has given them the right to insult our icons. On Saturday, Netaji was insulted. The chief minister of our state was insulted.”

    ALSO READ | Not forcing anyone to raise ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan: Yogi Adityanath on allged heckling of Mamata

    “There can be political differences, but you can’t insult the chief minister. We are thinking of bringing a censure motion against this in the upcoming session,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee said.

    The motion is likely to be placed in the assembly on January 28.

    Chatterjee, also the TMC secretary general, alleged that the saffron party has earlier insulted Bengal’s other icons such as Nobel Laureate poet Rabindranath Tagore and educationist and social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.

    A censure motion is moved in a Legislative House to express strong disapproval of certain policies or acts.

  • Nobody should feel pain while chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’: Sanjay Raut

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: Days after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declined to speak at an event where “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said nobody should feel pain while chanting the slogan.

    Talking to reporters here on Monday, Raut said he is sure Mamata Banerjee also has faith in Lord Ram.

    Banerjee on Saturday declined to speak at an official programme to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary in Kolkata after “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised from the audience in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

    She said such “insult” was unacceptable.

    Asked about the BJP accusing Banerjee of feeling pained when chanting the slogan, Raut said, “Nobody should feel pained to say ‘Jai Shri Ram’ in the country.”

    “Nobody’s secularism will be under threat by saying Jai Shri Ram. We think Lord Ram is the pride of the country and support,” he said.

    “Jai Shri Ram is not any political word. It is a matter of our faith, and I am sure that Mamata Didi also has faith in Lord Ram,” the Rajya Sabha member said.

    An editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ also said Banerjee should not have got upset when “Jai Shri Ram” slogans were raised by some people during the programme.

    “Rather, tables would have turned on them (those who raised slogans) had she mixed her voice among theirs. But everyone is catering to their own vote banks,” it said.

    The BJP has identified Banerjee’s “weak point” and it will keep playing up such sensitive issues until the Assembly elections (in West Bengal) are over, it said.

    The editorial also launched a veiled attack on the BJP, accusing it of poaching TMC leaders in West Bengal to defeat the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the forthcoming polls in that state.

    It said the leadership of West Bengal, Punjab and Maharashtra were at the forefront of the country’s freedom struggle.

    The three states are fighting for their self-pride at present also and the Centre is against them, it claimed.

    Farmers from Punjab, who are agitating against the Centre’s new farm laws near Delhi border, are allegedly being trampled, it said.

    Maharashtra is being targeted in a “pre-decided” manner, the Marathi daily alleged, apparently referring to notices by central agencies to some of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) leaders.

    The BJP poached Congress and NCP leaders ahead of the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly polls and gave them candidature, it alleged and said most of such candidates had got elected.

    “What happened in Maharashtra is (now) happening in West Bengal. (BJP) doesn’t have anything of its own. It creates its legion poaching with whom it is going to fight. It happened in Bihar. Now, struggle is on to defeat the TMC by poaching TMC (leaders),” the Shiv Sena charged.

    Notably, West Bengal forest minister Rajib Banerjee quit the Mamata Banerjee cabinet recently, joining the growing list of dissenters who have put the ruling camp in a tight spot ahead of the Assembly elections.

    The editorial said the BJP winning 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal is a matter of concern for Mamata Banerjee.

    “But this Bengal tigress (Mamata Banerjee) is the one who fights on the streets and will keep fighting,” it added.