The days of the ruling Trinamool Congress Government are numbered and it could fall well before completing it's full term, Bengal Opposition Leader Suvendu Adhikari has said.
Adhikar's statement comes in the backdrop of the ongoing investigation in school level recruitment scams that has seen Partha Chatterjee a senior State minister and number two in the Mamata Banerjee Cabinet landing in jail along with his close aide Arpita Mukherjee from whose apartments the Enforcement Directorate recovered liquid cash, jewellery and property documents worth crore. "By the month of December this government will lose its existence for all practical purpose.. And in 2024 we will see both the State and General Elections taking place simultaneously," Adhikari on Tuesday said adding he meant what he said.
Before Adhikari Mumbai star and BJP campaigner Mithun Chakraborty had last month said in Kolkata that "atleast 38 TMC MLAs are in touch with me." Last month Adhikari too went on record saying after the fall of the Uddhav Thakarey Government that "now it is Maharashtra, after this it will be Jharkhand and then it will be the turn of Bengal," leading the TMC to cry "conspiracy" against the BJP national leadership.
Adhikari was strongly supported by his State party leader Bimal Krishna Nanda who said, "practically it is not possible for the TMC to carry on for another four years because their party men are being chased away in villages after the recruitment scandal. Mamata Banerjee has angered and alienated the entire youth of the State." Reacting strongly to Adhikar's statement Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, "Suvendu Adhikari is behaving like an astrologer... But if he has so much knowledge of astrology then why could he not go and save Bihar Government... Frst let the BJP control prices, save economy, create jobs and then come to fight Mamata Banerjee who defeated them single handedly in last year's Assembly elections."
Senior minister Firhad Hakim also said that "the BJP is trying to use agencies and money power to topple Bengal government," vowing, "it will not be easy to apply the same trick against Mamata Banerjee." Left on the other hand viewed the development in a different way saying there was no difference between the two parties. "We will not be surprised if the entire TMC goes and merges with the BJP," central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said.