Anupam Hazra, the former Trinamool MP . | EPS 
India

TMC politicising my courtesy call with rival, says BJP's Jadavpur candidate

Hazra said that he was paying a "courtesy visit" to Mondal, who recently lost his mother, after casting his vote in Bolepur.

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KOLKATA: BJP's Jadavpur candidate Anupam Hazra on Tuesday accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of plotting a conspiracy against him, a day after his meeting with the West Bengal ruling party's Birbhum chief Anubrata Mondal at his party office in the district left the saffron party leadership red-faced.

Hazra said that he was paying a "courtesy visit" to Mondal, who recently lost his mother, after casting his vote in Bolepur.

"When I reached his chamber at the TMC office, I saw mediapersons there. It was pre-planned. I did not realise the dirty politics. It was plot by them to create confusion among Jadavpur's BJP workers and demoralise them," Hazra told reporters.

"I am not politically savvy enough to realise how politics is practised even over the death of a person," Hazra said.

He also accused the media of highlighting a "selective bits of his conversation" with the TMC strongman and not showing the details of his entire meeting.

Hazra, who was earlier with the TMC, was expelled from the party for anti-party activities. In their meeting on Monday, Mondal and Hazra cleared their misunderstanding over his ouster from the TMC.

Mondal also insisted that Hazra had made a mistake by leaving the party. "I can take him back in the party, if required. If he wants to be an MP, I will inform our party supremo Mamata Banerjee about him," he added.

On Tuesday however, Hazra rejected Mondal's proposal for a TMC ticket. "I was forced to leave the TMC because of a situation created by Mondal," he said.

BJP leader Mukul Roy backed Hazra's claim and called him a victim of a "political conspiracy".

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