KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that despite knowing about the impending Pulwama attack, Centre did nothing to prevent it so that it can reap political dividends out of the national sentiments evoked by the martyrs' body count.
Speaking at the last TMC core committee meeting before Lok Sabha elections, at Nazrul Mancha here on Monday, the TMC supremo said: "Despite having intelligence inputs about the attack, why did the Centre not airlift the soldiers or secure the roads or pass on the intelligence input to the state government? This is a ploy to play politics with the jawans' blood. A war hysteria is deliberately being created before the elections."
She also warned that Electronic Voting Machine (EVMs) could be tampered in the Lok Sabha elections and asked TMC cadres and leaders to remain on alert and prevent EVM tampering.
The TMC supremo also alleged that NRIs with RSS membership were to be blamed for the upsurge in political violence in the state and accused BJP of bringing in 'cash in trains' to buy TMC leaders in the state.
"From where is so much money coming into Bengal? BJP is bringing the money in trains to buy TMC leaders. But fear no one. When we could defeat the 34-year rule of Left Front, what is five years of BJP rule for us? We have to uproot the five years of misrule brought in the country by the two brothers (Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah). We have to remove this oppressive, dictatorial regime. We will fight them in inches."
Reiterating her target to win all the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the West Bengal Chief Minister warned that RSS and VHP were bringing Hindutva fundamentalists from outside the state to create communal tensions in West Bengal in the poll season and asked people to be alert and inform the police about suspicious persons.
Hitting out at the state Opposition, she warned that Congress, CPM and BJP might have an 'under-the-table' understanding against TMC in the Lok Sabha elections.
On the other hand, CPM is facing a tough time in persuading the Left Front constituent parties CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP for the pre-poll alliance with Congress. Sources revealed that the CPM allies are ready for an alliance with Congress but have put one demand: There should not be any public sighting of CPM and Congress leaders together either in rallies or meetings.