Barely a few days into a thumping victory the Trinamool Congress has claimed that a number of BJP MPs from Bengal had started contacting its top leadership. The State saffron leaders however rejected the claim quickly calling it a "fake story" and a part of TMC's horse-trading games.
A senior TMC leader on Thursday said that at least three out of the 12 victorious BJP MPs had been in contact with the TMC leadership and could soon meet party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
Though the leader would not give the names he said out of the three leaders at least one was from South Bengal. The TMC trounced the saffron part hands down in recently concluded general elections winning 29 out of 42 parliamentary seats. The BJP won 12 and the Congress bagged one seat. In 2019 elections the BJP had stunned the TMC by winning 18 seats.
"Look at the irony … it is the same BJP Home Minister who was claiming that after 2024 general elections the TMC will crumble like a house of cards and most of its leaders would join the BJP … and now they have to give clarifications why the their own victorious MPs are frequently calling up the TMC office," said the leader.
Bengal BJP president Sukanto Majumdar however rejected the TMC's claims saying this was "a fake" news adding, "they may resort to some horse-trading but will fail miserably."
Meanwhile, Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari on Thursday appealed to Governor CV Ananda Bose to visit the areas hit by post poll violence alleging the TMC goons were attacking the BJP workers at various parts of the State often rendering them homeless. "I will request the Governor to visit the violence torn areas as the TMC goons are attacking our men for having taken part and campaigning for the BJP in the elections," Adhikari said.
In a letter to the Governor he wrote, "As has become synonymous now with West Bengal, the goons of the ruling dispensation has gone berserk upon BJP workers after the declaration of the results of general elections, 2024, on June 4."
The alleged TMC goons had attacked the Opposition houses including those of the BJP and Left in a large part of the State, reports said. Attacks were carried out at Rajpur, Sonarpur, Canning, Jaynagar in South 24 Parganas, sources said adding a BJP MLA's office at Durgapur too had been looted and ransacked. Several BJP party offices at Barrackpore — from where Arjun Singh had contested and lost against the TMC — have been vandalized sources said.
The CPI(M) too complained of similar attacks. Party leader and star campaigner Meenakshi Mukherjee said how houses and properties of poor workers had been vandalized and looted at Asansol, Jadavpur, Bankra in Howrah district, Khardaha and Panihati in Dum Dum areas.
"There fault is just that they had prevented the TMC from capturing booths … so their shops and houses are being looted and torched … Mamata Banerjee is presiding over these programmes … but remember one day will come when these things will end and TMC will have to go," she said reminding the Left won at least ten elections but never tried to decimate the opposition.
