With Saradha scam having turned into Mamata Banerjee’s Achilles’ Heels, the Bengal Chief Minister on Tuesday heaped the entire blame on the Congress which “is taking revenge on me because I did not join its alliance despite repeated requests.”
The Chief Minister was speaking in immediate reference to the sudden arrest by the Enforcement Directorate of Saradha chief Sudipto Sen’s wife and son and their intense grilling that has reportedly revealed the ponzi company’s close links with senior Trinamool Congress leaders.
“The Congress is on its way out. No one can save that party. So they tried to take my help to remain afloat in Indian politics. When I refused to support the scam-tainted party they have unleashed the ED to malign the Trinamool at a time when the elections are taking place,” Banerjee said.
This was Chief Minister’s second such strong statement in the past couple of days. Earlier she had attacked Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram for using ED against her and dared him to “touch me and then see the consequence and all that I can do to you.”
Other Trinamool Congress leaders also took the lead to attack the Centre for misusing the ED with State Finance Minister Amit Mitra wondering why raids would not be conducted in Chidambaram’s wife Nalini Chidambaram’s house in the same case and State Minister Madan Mitra literally attacking President Pranab Mukherjee saying “the ED should also question the son and daughter of the person who was then a senior Congress leader and now is occupying the top most post of the country on the whereabouts of the Saradha funds.”
Incidentally the Election Commission has sought reports on Mitra’s open attack on the Presidential family, EC sources said on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a Kolkata court on Tuesday gave additional two days’ remand of Sen’s son and wife to the ED after they produced evidences showing links of a host of bank accounts to a number of senior politicians.