KOLKATA: TMC MP Jawhar Sircar on Monday said that a part of his party is "completely rotten" and BJP cannot be fought in the 2024 elections with such elements.
Sircar, a former bureaucrat who was elected to Rajya Sabha last year, said his family and friends asked him to quit politics after TMC leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal were arrested.
"You can't put up a fight against the BJP in 2024 with rotten elements in the party. A portion of the party is completely rotten. These rotten elements have to be operated out, or else it will infect the entire body," he told ABP Ananda news channel.
Referring to the hoards of cash recovered at the apartment of Arpita Mukherjee, an associate of Chatterjee, he said it was a very embarrassing moment for him.
"I had never encountered such a situation even when I was an IAS officer. My family asked me to quit politics, my friends called me up to ask how much I got. It was a very embarrassing moment for me," he said.
Sircar said he joined politics to defeat the BJP.
"If even after ten years we fail to defeat the BJP in 2024, then there might not be any other Lok Sabha election," he claimed.
The Trinamool Congress declined to comment on Sircar's remarks.
"The party's leadership will speak to him," a senior TMC leader said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday asserted that ousting the BJP from power at the Centre in 2024 will be her "last fight".
The 67-year-old feisty TMC boss, however, did not clarify her remark.
"The BJP has to be defeated in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The fight for Delhi to oust the saffron party from power at the Centre will be my last. I promise to oust the BJP from power," she said while addressing a rally here.
Without giving further clarification, she said, "The BJP has to be defeated at any cost."
"Saving West Bengal is our first fight. I promise we will remove the BJP from power at the Centre in 2024. If you try to intimidate us, we will respond," Banerjee said.
Banerjee, while referring to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi losing elections in 1989 despite winning more than 400 seats in 1984, said, "Everybody has to taste defeat."
"Indira Gandhi was a strong political leader, but she had also tasted defeat. The BJP has around 300 MPs, but Bihar is gone, and more will follow. Ahead of elections, they will sit with zero leaders," she said.
The opposition BJP, while reacting to Banerjee's "last fight" remark, wondered whether the TMC supremo would "hang her boots after the Lok Sabha polls".
"She should clearly say whether she would hang her boots after the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It's a foregone conclusion that the BJP would return to power for the third consecutive term," BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said.