West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has come under attack from all the opposition parties in the state, including the BJP, Congress and CPI(M), for her comment on Wednesday that it was not Trinamool Congress, but the CPI(M) which was responsible for chasing out Tata Motors' Nano small car project from Singur in Hooghly district.
"I did not drive out the Tatas. CPI(M) did. They forcefully acquired land for the project. I just gave back the land to the farmers at a later stage," Banerjee said at a post-Durga Puja gathering in Siliguri in Darjeeling district, 14 years after then Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata had announced to pull out the ambitious project from Singur, holding Trinamool Congress' agitation against land acquisition for the project solely responsible for the decision.
BJP Lok Sabha member from Hooghly, Locket Chatterjee, said that probably Mamata Banerjee will now claim that she became the Chief Minister because of pressure from CPI(M).
"She (Banerjee) has been making false statements for the last 11 years. She promised that she would return the Singur land to the farmers after reviving them in original fertile conditions. Yes, she has returned the land but farming is no longer possible there," Chatterjee said.
Also read | Not me, but CPI-M drove Tata Motors out of Singur: Mamata Banerjee
CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said that if there is any doctorate for expertise in making false statements, the Chief Minister will be the only contender for it.
"She makes false statements throughout the day and the latest example is her remark that CPI(M) was responsible for ousting the small car project from Singur. Does she mean to say that it was not her but former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who was responsible for staging protest against the project," Chakraborty asked.
Congress Rajya Sabha member Pradip Bhattacharya said that Banerjee and her party had ensured that Tata Motors didn't start manufacturing in Singur at any cost.
"So what is the point of blaming the CPI(M) now," he asked.
