KOLKATA: The BJP's West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh on Friday wondered whether the ruling Trinamool Congress would describe the industrial workers, who originally hailed from neighbouring states but are living in this state for a long time, as "outsiders".
Addressing a meeting at Champdani in Hooghly district, an area having several jute mills, Ghosh claimed that the TMC has raised the "outsider" theory for political reasons.
The BJP divided the state into five organisational zones and put central leaders in charge of them last month.
The TMC has been accusing the saffron party of inducting "outsiders" - leaders from outside the state in poll-related works - with no sense of ground realities and ethos of Bengal.
The assembly election is due in the state in April-May next year.
At Friday's meeting at Champdani, Ghosh asked if "the people hailing from neighbouring states like Bihar, living here for ages, would be described by the TMC as outsiders."
"The Trinamool Congress is hammering the outsider issue for political reasons. What will happen if Bengali youths, who go outside the state for work, are also confronted with the same question?" he said.
The BJP leader said that TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was responsible for an automobile plant not coming up at Singur, around 12 km from Champdani, in Hooghly district, and claimed that the chief minister failed to create employment opportunities in the state.
The Singur movement is one of the key factors that brought the TMC to power in West Bengal in 2011.
However, the agitation had led the Tata group to shift the Nano car manufacturing plant out of the state.
"She (Banerjee) has not been able to create a single employment opportunity for the youth of the state. They are forced to go outside Bengal for higher studies and jobs," the BJP MP claimed.
Several jute mills got closed in the industrial belt in North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts on either side of the river Hooghly during the TMC regime, while its leaders "are busy collecting cut money flaunting the party flag", he alleged.
Ghosh accused the TMC government of "doing nothing to stop the influx of Rohingya refugees into West Bengal and terrorists setting up their bases in the border areas of the state.
" On the TMC extending solidarity with the agitating farmers in north India, he said that peasants of the state are not getting proper price for their agricultural produce.
"The state buys only 10-12 per cent of the crops of a farmer, while the rest is sold to middlemen. They buy the product at a cheap rate and sell it at a premium price," he claimed.
These middlemen who enjoy the patronage of TMC leaders artificially raised the prices of potatoes to fund the election expenses of the ruling party, Ghosh alleged.
He mocked the CM's announcement on Thursday that tabs will be provided to 9.5 lakh students at the higher secondary level.
Ghosh said, "Remember how the students got defective cycles under the Sabuj Sathi scheme though a huge amount of money was sanctioned for it. I doubt if the students will be really benefitted by tabs."
Referring to the state's claims that Centre is not giving its dues, Ghosh said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had rushed to West Bengal after Cyclone Amphan struck, made an aerial visit with the CM and announced Rs 1000 crore as immediate relief.
But what happened to that money?" The state government had announced a monetary compensation of Rs 20,000 to those whose houses were damaged in the cyclone but the money was mostly pocketed by the relatives of local TMC leaders while the real victims were left high and dry, the BJP leader claimed.
"When we held protests taking people along, the CM said there were a few such incidents which will be rectified. But everyone knows those were not stray incidents," he said.
Ghosh also claimed that the Swasthya Sathi health scheme, which was recently expanded to cover the entire population of the state, will be of no use to the common man.
"It is nothing but a publicity drive by this government before the election.
Those who have the (Swasthya Sathi) card know that they have to spend a large amount from their pocket for medical treatment," he claimed.
The BJP leader also expressed concern over the deaths of doctors, other health department workers and police personnel due to coronavirus in the state, and alleged that the government is trying to hide the real COVID situation.
"If we point out these things, the government slaps false cases against us. Already there are 28,000 false cases. Over 120 BJP workers were killed. But they can't intimidate us by such acts any more," he said.