Mamata hurls back charges at CPI(M)

In the face of allegations by leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that her party has been using black money in its campaign for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee angrily retorted on Wednesday that it is the CPI(M) which has crores of rupees.

“They have crores [of rupees] and are now preaching to the Trinamool Congress,” she said at an election rally at Raidighi in the South 24 Parganas district.

Senior CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb had on April 16 alleged that the Trinamool had been using illegal funds, and had distributed nearly Rs.34 crore to its candidates. “The Trinamool Congress is the one political party which is a poor party. It has to struggle to keep going,” Ms. Banerjee said.

The CPI(M) and the BJP were working together in the State as “they have been in Delhi.”

Ms. Banerjee accused the Left Front government of failing to provide jobs to youth and not performing.

“What it has not been able to deliver in 35 years in power, it will never be able to any more.”

The government had gone on a land-grabbing spree “and had I not gone on fast in protest against the developments at Singur, large chunks of land elsewhere like Kulpi and Raidighi would have been forcibly acquired by now,” she said.