West Bengal's Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asserted that recent switchover by a number of party leaders and workers to the BJP ahead of the 2021 Assembly elections will make no difference to the ruling party as, it claimed, "garbage had been removed".
TMC leaders Suvendu Adhikari, Rajib Banerjee, Baishali Dalmiya, Prabir Ghoshal, Rathin Chakraborti, Rudranil Ghosh and a host of other leaders and workers have quit the ruling party and joined the BJP in the last few months.
"The MLAs who have gone over to the BJP have no political base and can't win on their own. Their switchover to the BJP will not make any difference to the TMC's health. These leaders left in greed but it has cleared the garbage from within the Trinamool. New faces will now get a chance to replace those who left," Vivek Gupta, a former Rajya Sabha member and TMC national spokesperson, remarked in an exclusive interview to IANS here.
He said that the opposition BJP had forced TMC leaders and workers to switch sides through fear or won them over through inducements.
"These TMC leaders were made fearful of action by central agencies. No one can stop such switchovers. Angry leaders do not matter to the Trinamool Congress. The leaders who have gone to the BJP can't win elections on their own. Mamata Banerjee's face is the trump card for all party MLAs. If these rebel leaders had the political support, they would have contested the elections on their own rather than join the BJP. Now, we know who is a friend and who is an enemy."
The TMC leader asserted that even though the BJP was making tall claims about West Bengal, the state's people will ensure a hat-trick for their Mamata Didi in the coming Assembly elections.
"More than two crore health partner cards have been created in the eastern state. The BJP is only beating drums and building castles in the air," Gupta said.
Taking a dig at Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on his claim that the BJP will win over 200 Assembly seats in West Bengal, the TMC leader said: "Shah had also made big claims ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections in 2020. How many Assembly seats the BJP ultimately bagged is known to everyone by now. In West Bengal, the people will vote in the name of Mamata Banerjee."
As for the state government's alleged failure to stop political violence in Bengal, Gupta said that her government was continuously working to redress the situation vis-a-vis law and order, which is undoubtedly a State subject.
"Every accident or crime hurts everyone. When such incidents take place, police tries to reduce crime by patrols and other methods. If the BJP is so concerned about West Bengal's law and order, it should also look at a low-intensity bomb blast near Israel Embassy in Delhi," the TMC spokesperson said.
Commenting on stone-pelting on BJP national President JP Nadda's convoy during his visit to West Bengal in December last, Gupta claimed that a person arrested in the case was a BJP activist. "The BJP is now looking to cook up reasons for its impending defeat. For this, violence is being used in West Bengal even as National Crime Records Bureau data shows that the opposite is true," Gupta concluded.
