Mamata Banerjee pans Centre over ED summons to Abhishek

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accused the Centre of letting loose its agencies on her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in a coal scam case and claimed some BJP ministers were working "hand in glove" with coal mafia.

She also accused the Narendra Modi government of trying to "bulldoze the federal structure" of the country and snatching away the rights of the states.

A combative TMC boss also proposed a meeting of all chief ministers to fight the Centre's "authoritarianism". "The BJP and the Union government can't fight us politically. The party was defeated in the assembly polls, and now they are using central agencies against our leaders like Abhishek Banerjee and others.

But let me tell them they can't bulldoze or intimidate us with such threats. We will continue our fight against them," Banerjee said. She was addressing the foundation day programme of TMC Chatra Parishad, her party's students wing.

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned TMC's Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee and his wife for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged coal scam in the state.

"If you show us (threaten us with) ED, we will also send proof against BJP leaders to the agency. A section of BJP ministers and leaders is hand in glove with the coal mafia. They even stayed at hotels run by them during elections," she said.

Noting that natural resources like coal are controlled by the central government, Banerjee said," There's no use pointing fingers at the Trinamool for corruption in coal. It is under the Centre. What about its ministers? What about BJP leaders who looted the coal belt of Bengal, the Asansol region."

Earlier, while addressing the gathering, Abhishek challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to fight the TMC politically and save the ruling BJP in Tripura from defeat in the 2023 assembly polls.

"The BJP and the Centre feel they can put pressure on us by using ED and CBI against us, but we will emerge stronger.

We are not afraid of BJP. We will fight them politically. I challenge Amit Shah to fight against us politically and save the BJP government in Tripura from certain defeat in the 2023 assembly polls," he said.