Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday accused the BJP and a section of the media of maligning the state after an old video of a mob assault in Ariadaha in North 24-Parganas began circulating just before the by-elections for four Assembly constituencies held yesterday. Speaking to mediapersons at Kolkata airport, Miss Banerjee also held former BJP MP from Barrakpore Arjun Singh responsible for the rise of Jayanta Singh, the alleged mastermind behind the Ariadha incident.

Jayanta Singh has been arrested by police after the video showing his gang members assaulting people, including a woman, in his den, went viral. Miss Banerjee said the two-year-old incident happened when Arjun Singh was BJP MP of Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency. There was a BJP MP in Barrackpore when Jayanta amassed wealth and rose to fame. He also tried to foil the 2021 Assembly election, Miss Banerjee said. She accused a section of the TV channels of showing the old incident repeatedly at the behest of the BJP ahead of Wednesday’s byelections. “This was done deliberately to create false propaganda before the polls. Even an event of 2021 was highlighted.

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I might adopt legal steps against such things,” the chief minister said. Miss Banerjee, who was leaving for Mumbai, said that she will separately meet Shiv Sena-UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray, NCP-SP chief Sharad Pawar and the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav during her two-day trip to attend the marriage function of industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant Ambani. “I will meet Uddhav Thackeray, whom I have not met for quite some time, there tomorrow. I will have political discussions with him. I will also go to the residence of Sharad Pawar and meet him. I heard that Akhilesh Yadav will be there. I will also meet him. I will be coming back to Kolkata on Saturday,” she said. The Shiv Sena, TMC, NCP, and SP are part of the opposition alliance INDIA at the national level along with the Congress.