Barely hours after leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) launched a scathing attack on the Trinamool Congress, its chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came up with a rebuttal on Sunday evening.
Accusing the CPI(M) of “spreading lies and canards” against her government, Ms. Banerjee said the people would never forgive the party for having taken the State down the path of destruction. She was speaking at an event organised by the Railways at the Howrah station.
“For 35 [read 34] years, all it did was to spread lies. Such a political party should not exist… The more it is decimated, the more the people will be saved.”
No work was done by the Left Front during its tenure, she said. All it did was “spread lies, loot and leave behind skeletons.”
She once again accused the CPI(M) of being responsible for the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express at Sardiha in the State's Paschim Medinipur district to discredit her two days before civic elections to several bodies across the State. Nearly 150 persons were killed in the May 28, 2010 incident when she was the Railway Minister. The Central Bureau of Investigation, however, subsequently concluded that the incident was the handiwork of a frontal organisation of the Maoists.
Earlier, secretary general of the Trinamool Congress and State's Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee rubbished the allegations of farmers' suicides levelled by leaders of the CPI(M).