BJP conspiracy to destablilise elected govts proved: TMC

KOLKATA: “The cat is out of the bag,” Trinamool said on Friday, with regard to Union home minister Amit Shah’s statement that the state government would change in 2025, before the Bengal assembly polls in 2026.
“It is now proved that government changes across Indian states have been engineered from Delhi. This is a political conspiracy to destabilise elected state governments, attested by no less than the Union home minister,” party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said after Shah’s Suri meeting.
“Shah said they would win 35 seats in Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha.It was reminiscent of all of his pre-2021 claims of 200 plus seats in Bengal. We saw the result. The more he says these things, the easier it becomels for people to decide whom to vote for. Let them start thinking from zero seats. Given the way things are, they have to sweat to win even a single (Lok Sabha) seat in Bengal,” Ghosh said.
“It is also amusing that he seats himself beside (state opposition leader Suvendu) Adhikari ‘private limited’ while speaking on nepotism and corruption. People in glass houses should not hurl stones,” he added.
Bengal minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said: “The home minister spoke of corruption sitting beside a person who is an FIR-named accused in a CBI probe. He spoke of the coal scam but chose to remain silent on why his cabinet colleague was photographed with coal mafia.” She added: “He also did not have a word on those who denigrate women. He was silent on why people have not been paid wages (under MGNREGS) after making them work.”
The party’s Rajya Sabha chief whip and spokesperson, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, said: “On Thursday, we had posed certain questions for the Union home minister. But unfortunately, he responded to none of them today. For example, why has the central government stopped more than Rs 7,000 crore of funds on MGNREGS. Why did your party indulge in Ram Navami violence in Howrah and other parts of Bengal? And today, we are surprised to find that you are mentioning the coal scam without admitting that one of your central ministers came to Bengal and met a coal smuggler.” Ray questioned why a person named by CBI in an FIR was allowed to sit beside the nation’s home minister.
State minister Shashi Panja said: “The home minister avoided our questions in Bengal in the same manner the Union rural development and panchayati raj minister avoided meeting our delegation of MPs in Delhi.” Adding to this, minister Partha Bhowmick said: “Along with the 100-day work scheme, he did not have a word on why funds for 11.3 lakh homes sanctioned for Bengal have been stopped.”