KOLKATA: At a time when the ruling Trinamool Congress is facing public ignominy over the arrest of party’s third-in-command and minister Partha Chatterjee by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for cash-for-jobs in schools scam, CM Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday exuded confidence that the BJP would lose the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. But, at the same time, she said, "I don’t know how."
Four days after the arrest of the Bengal’s commerce and industries minister in the alleged recruitment scam, Mamata, while inaugurating a Metro coach manufacturing unit Titagarh wagon factory, North 24 Parganas, assured industrialists that Bengal means business and everybody will grow together.
"The government at Centre is more dangerous than the British Raj. I don’t know how, but I can say the BJP will not come to power. It will lose the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. They also realised it and this is why they are now depending on astrology. They have planned to build new buildings (Central Vista) to shift. But it will not save them," said Mamata.
Portraying Bengal as thriving industrial state, Mamata said, "I was recently travelling by road and saw how Hooghly district has become an industrial zone. Bengal means business. We have decided to make three dedicated corridors where lakhs of job opportunities will be created. The three dedicated corridors are Dankuni-Kalyani, Dankuni-Haldia and Dankuni-Raghunathpur. These corridors will connect many districts in south Bengal like Howrah, Burdwan, Birbhum and Purulia."
She, however, hit out at the Centre for conducting the raid, in which Chatterjee was arrested, even after midnight.
"When you run a big institution, there can be mistakes. If law holds someone guilty, we will punish him. But why the raid was conducted even after midnight? Why did the central agency take action in the early hours? The Centre is using agencies to malign the state government," asked Mamata without mentioning Chatterjee’s name. In an apparent remark disowning Chatterjee two days ago, Mamaha had said, "If someone is found guilty in the court of law, I won’t mind."
Chatterjee was arrested around 1.50 am on Saturday after being interrogated for over 17 hours by the ED at his residence.