Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday alleged that West Bengal was deliberately kept out of the India visit schedule of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
“I heard that Sheikh Hasina expressed keen interest in coming to West Bengal during her recent India visit. But for some unknown reasons, West Bengal was kept out of her visit schedule,” the chief minister said while addressing a gathering of Trinamool Congress leaders and workers at Kolkata’s Netaji Indoor Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
She said that previously too the Union government posed hurdles towards her foreign visits. “I got an invitation to go to China. But I was not allowed,” the chief minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, she said that the BJP feels that by getting the party’s district president, Anubrata Mondal arrested by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), they will be able to grab two Lok Sabha constituencies in that district in 2024. “But that will never be possible. He is sick. Before every election he is virtually kept under house arrest. But that could not stop him. Our struggle and fight in Birbhum district will increase three times as long as Anubrata is back with us,” she said.
However, throughout her speech not even once she uttered the name of the former West Bengal education minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, Partha Chatterjee, who is currently in judicial custody over his alleged involvement in the multi- crore West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC) recruitment irregularities scam.
“On Trinamool Congress, 99 per cent of the party leaders and workers are honest and transparent. For the one per cent bad elements law will take its own course and the party will also act against them,” the chief minister said.
Speaking on the occasion, she asked her cabinet colleagues, MPs and MLAs to refrain from making job recommendations in their letterheads. She also asked her party leaders to be extremely cautious about telephonic and WhatsApp interactions on important matters. “If necessary, personally interact with each other face to face, especially on important matters. Everything is getting leaked. The spies of BJP are moving around in all the villages of West Bengal,” she said.
However, she added, that finally all such conspiracies framed by the BJP by unleashing the central agencies will fall flat in the court.
–IANS