Mamata Banerjee accuses Trinamool MLA of having clandestine understanding with BJP

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused her own party legislator Usha Rani Mondal of having a clandestine understanding with the BJP.

Mondal is the Trinamool Congress MLA from the Minakhan Assembly segment in North 24 Parganas district that falls under the Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency.

“She (Mondal) will continue to be a Trinamool legislator. Yet, she will not attend any party meetings. I will not accept Usha Rani Mondal unless she apologises. I have no connection with her. I do not want people like her in my party.

"She and her husband are trying to sell the party which I will never accept,” the Chief Minister said at Minakhan on Saturday while addressing an election meeting in support of the party candidate from Basirhat, Haji Nurul Islam.

Banerjee also accused the BJP of spending lakhs of rupees to purchase obedience of her party leaders.

“Lakhs of cash are being seized every day. They are trying to purchase votes by distributing cash. They think they can buy everyone with cash,” she said.

The Chief Minister also expressed her displeasure over two recent orders passed by the Calcutta High Court -- cancellation of around 26,000 school jobs, and scrapping more than five lakh OBC certificates issued by the Bengal government after 2010 as 'invalid'.

“I will not allow BJP's plot to be successful. I will not allow snatching away jobs or OBC certificates. Similarly, I will not allow the implementation of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), NRC (National Register of Citizens), and UCC (Uniform Civil Code) in the state,” the Chief Minister said.

She also said that casting votes for any anti-BJP party in West Bengal other than the Trinamool will mean indirectly helping the BJP.

“This will mean division in anti-BJP votes. Every vote cast to any other party will make the BJP happy. Do not divide anti-BJP votes,” the Chief Minister told the gathering.