‘Trinamool, BJP to be main rivals in Bengal Panchayat polls’

Kolkata, May 2 (IANS) Claiming that the Congress and Left Front activists in the state are switching over to his party, BJP's West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh on Tuesday said that the BJP and ruling Trinamool Congress will be the main rivals in next year's Panchayat (rural body) elections.

"The way the grass-roots workers from the Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist are joining our party every day, it seems a majority of their candidates who won the last elections will be with us," Ghosh told the media in Burdwan town in West Bengal district of the same name.

"The fight to win the Panchayat elections will evidently be between two parties -- the TMC and the BJP. The common people will come under our party's flag and vote for the BJP. They will resist the Trinamool Congress," he said.

Ghosh claimed that the CPI-M and Congress have already lost a lot of political ground in the state, and might even find it difficult to name candidates for all Panchayat seats.

"Even if they manage to file nominations, there won't be enough people to campaign for them," he said.

Talking about Trinamool Congress' overwhelming presence in the 2016 assembly elections, Ghosh said the ruling party might lose its lustre if some of their leaders, accused in various chit fund scams, get arrested before the Panchayat polls.

"No one knows what will be the state of the Trinamool Congress by the time the Panchayat elections are held. If two or three of their leaders get arrested, the party may lose its lustre. Who knows if they will be in a position to fight the elections or not," he said.

The BJP leader also held the state government responsible for the recurring incidents of violence against police.

"The police have never been humiliated and heckled in this way. They never had to stoop so low. They are helpless. They are facing the heat due to the lack of governance in the state," Ghosh said, claiming the police won't stand by the ruling party-backed hooligans for long.

Echoing his views, BJP National Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya exuded confidence that all the Trinamool Congress leaders accused in Sarada (chit fund) and Narada (sting footage) scams will be punished, and demanded Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expel them from her party.

"I want to ask if she will expel her corrupt ministers named in an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation. If she does not do so, the people of Bengal will grab them by the collar and expel them from the state," Vijayvargiya said at a public rally in Burdwan.

The CBI has registered a case against a dozen senior Trinamool leaders who were purportedly seen accepting wads of currency notes in the Narada sting footage. The list includes former and current ministers,ands members of Parliament and assembly.

"It is shameful that more than half of her cabinet has been accused by the CBI of corruption," he added.