The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday mounted a sharp attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee following her visit to the Kolkata office of political consultancy firm I-PAC, which was being raided by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Congress and Left Front leaders said that the Chief Minister Banerjee and I-PAC both performed a drama again before the Assembly poll to divert the attention of the people. The incident took place at the very day BJP national president JP Nadda began his Bengal visit, the state witnessed high political drama following Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s direct intervention.
The ED searches triggered sharp political confrontation throughout Thursday. Leader of Opposition in Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari strongly protested the Chief Minister’s role. Welcoming Mr Nadda at the airport, he accused Ms Banerjee of repeatedly interfering in the functioning of Central agencies and demanded action against her. Citing past incidents, Mr Adhikari termed such interventions unconstitutional, saying the ED should proceed strictly as per law. In a post on social media platform X, the BJP alleged that Banerjee’s actions during the ED raid raised “disturbing questions” and indicated a “deeper conspiracy.” The CPI-M state secretary, Muhammad Salim said that a silly drama was played out today in Bengal, in which BJP and TMC as usual played binary games to divert the attention of people before the Assembly polls.
“ED should have completed the coal scam and job scam earlier but lingered it for the sake of politics. Who is the owner of I-PAC? Everybody knows this is a private company indirectly run by TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee,” said Mr Salim. Congress spokesperson Soumya Aich Roy said that as the Assembly election is approaching in Bengal so ED and CBI have come back as migratory birds. “Ask CBI why thieves of job scam, coal scam remain at large in Bengal? Chit fund scam criminals are still set free without facing jail. TMC and BJP both are losing their political ground in Bengal so this I-PAC drama happened today,” said Mr Aich Roy.
BJP state president Shamik Bhattacharya said that the sight of a sitting Chief Minister rushing to an investigation site to secure party documents and hard disks was not damage control but suggested an attempt to hide incriminating evidence. “If there is nothing to hide in West Bengal, why would a Chief Minister scramble to secure files from an official investigation site?”
Trinamul Congress reacted sharply to the ED raids. Party MP Partha Bhowmick said: “Yesterday’s Itahar turnout has shaken the BJP to its core. After seeing the pictures of the Itahar road show led by Abhishek Banerjee, Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and the BJP are trembling. No wonder ED raids are being conducted today.
Alleging the BJP acting in collusion with the ED, TMC’s IT wing head Debangshu Bhattacharya said: “Allegations were on ED and the reply came from BJP in a statement. Why is BJP replying on behalf of ED even before their ‘B’ team replied?”