TMC forcing BJP leaders to join camp, slapping fake cases: Kailash Vijayvargiya

Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) national general secretary and central observer of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday said the Trinamool Congress (TMC)-led state government is intimidating his party’s leaders to join the ruling camp. “Those who are joining the TMC in Bengal are being forced to do so,” he told news agency ANI.

His statements came on a day when the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC made a clean sweep in the bypolls to all the four Bengal assembly seats of Dinhata, Gosaba, Khardaha and Santipur.

When assembly elections were held in April, BJP candidates Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Naskar had won from Dinhata and Santipur constituencies, respectively. The bypolls were necessitated after they chose not to take oath and continue as parliamentarians.

The TMC has now added two more seats to its kitty, thereby having 215 of the 294 seats in the assembly.

Vijayvargiya, who was in charge of the BJP during the West Bengal assembly elections 2021, said multiple “fake cases” are being lodged against his party leaders in West Bengal.

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“There are almost 120 fake cases on BJP MP Arjun Singh, there are 20 cases against me too. Now, how can anyone survive when the government starts killing the opposition like this?” he said. The BJP leader further said the matter of winning and losing in elections emerges when they are held in a fair manner and not where “police, goons and political parties work in nexus for booth capturing”.

“They (TMC) snatch seats by capturing polling booths,” he said.

Vijayvargiya is not the only BJP leader, who has accused the TMC of snatching votes. Earlier in the day, party’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh said West Bengal Police “get the voting done” and that elections there are “one-sided and not neutral”.

“BJP candidates never get cars, mics, or accommodation during the by-elections here…Earlier, too, we lost the by-elections but won the general elections at the same place,” Ghosh, who was until recently BJP’s Bengal president, told ANI.

Ever since the TMC regained power in West Bengal, several TMC turncoats like Rajib Banerjee, Mukul Roy and Sabyasachi Datta have switched sides. Many BJP leaders, including former Union cabinet minister Babul Supriyo, who had lashed out at the people of West Bengal for voting “cruel lady” back to power, have also joined the ruling party.