KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Sunday launched a two-day protest across West Bengal to sharpen attack on the BJP-led Centre over the issue of withholding Rs 6,500 crore, which has held up wages for workers under MGNREGA, the employment’s 100-day job scheme.
The protest announced by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is politically significant as Bengal will go to panchayat polls next year, which is believed to be a litmus test for the BJP to gauge its strength in the lower tier of electoral exercise. The TMC, too, wants to retain its strength in the civic bodies in rural Bengal which the party had ensured in 2018.
The ruling party had won 34 per cent of seats uncontested in three-tier panchayat polls, which had prompted the Supreme Court to describe the huge number of seats where the TMC had no challenger as “shocking’’. As per the data released by the state election commission, 20,076 of the 58,692 seats had gone uncontested.
The TMC has timed its protest to counter the fortnight-long celebrations planned by the BJP to commemorate eight years of the Narendra Modi government. “In the next year’s panchayat polls, the central government’s decision of holding up the wages for daily wage earners for over six months will be used as a key toolsagainst the BJP, which has emerged as our only rival in Bengal politics. It is because a considerable chunk of the electorate belongs to the deprived class,’’ said a TMC leader.
The ruling party aims to hold protests aggressively in those pockets of the state where the saffron camp performed well in the previous rural polls. “Purulia district is one of the pockets where the BJP won over 50 gram panchayats in 2018. Protests are being taken out in all blocks on Monday as well. We have asked block leaders to bring at least 20 people who survive on the job scheme from each village,’’ said the leader.
Taking a jibe at the protest, BJP’s national vice president Dilip Ghosh said the Centre has held up the funds because it found large-scale corruption under the MGNREGA scheme. “The state government has been asked to clarify anomalies and the reply is yet to be given. A large part of the central fund was siphoned off illegally and panchayat functionaries increased their personal wealth,’’ Ghosh alleged.