After asking the BJP to come into an open debate on MGNREGA fund allocation to West Bengal, the national general secretary of Trinamul Congress has thrown another challenge to the saffron camp in Bengal.

He now asks the BJP to announce that cooking gas will be free for all for next five years. He said, “You don’t need to give Lakshmir Bhandar, Didi is already giving that. What I am challenging you is to bring a notification and announce that cooking gas will be provided free of cost to people for next 5 years. I will withdraw all 42 candidates.”

Mr Banerjee while addressing a rally at Mathurapur, South 24-Parganas, today riled the state BJP promise. The BJP leaders here are making promises that they would give Rs 3,000 per month should it come to power in the state over Rs 1,000 per month as entailed in the Lakshmir Bhandar scheme but they should not be concerned about that as Mamata Banerjee would take care of that. My challenge to BJP is that any of the 17 states that the BJP and its partners are in power give only Rs 1,500 per month, leave alone Rs 3,000.

Today, Kunal Ghosh and Ritabrata Banerjee highlighted how the Suvendu Adhikari, Himanta Biswa Sharma, Narayan Rane, Ajit Pawar, Ashok Chauhan and many more were branded as corrupt by the BJP and have now become saints after joining the BJP.

“Now, a new name has been included, Praful Patel who was accused by the BJP of a big scam, related to aviation and was undergoing an investigation. But soon after he joined the NDA, all cases against him just vanished through this washing machine,” said Ritabrata Banerjee.

They said the CBI, ED, NIA and Income Tax agencies are being misused by the BJP to suppress the Opposition and their voices.

Condemning Sanjeev Sanyal, from the PMO, Kunal Ghosh, said, “He humiliated Bengal’s culture, intelligence and heritage. We strongly condemn this matter.”

About Nawsad Siddique’s remarks on fighting in Diamond Harbour LS seat, Ghosh said, “Abhishek Banerjee, someone who coined the term ‘Diamond Harbour Model’ is going to contest from the LS seat and he is going to win by a margin of 4-5 lakh votes. Why should we be concerned about the Opposition candidates when we are aware of the results?”

They also cleared the air on allegations made by Metro that the route expansion between Ruby to Metropolitan is being delayed due to state not giving NOC. “This is totally an administrative issue. MCC has been implemented and preparations of poles are going on. On behalf of party, there is no reason to comment on administrative issues. Metro projects and expansion projects are a brainchild of Mamata Banerjee. She sanctioned funds on some projects. She and Trinamul wants they (Metro projects) progresses,” said the leaders.