The CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury has said that the party will intensify its agitation in West Bengal demanding further unearthing of alleged corruption by the Trinamool Congress government. He hit out at the BJP government in the Centre for lack of progress in the investigation into Sarada and Narada cases.

The senior CPI-M leader told the Press that his party has been long demanding a thorough probe in alleged corruption cases prevailing in Bengal under the TMC government. He said, “We have claimed time and again that the Trinamool Congress is a hotbed of corruption.”

He said the extent of corruption was unearthed with the arrest of the senior TMC minister Partha Chatterjee when the Enforcement Directorate raided certain premises, recovering a massive amount of cash which are supposedly the proceeds of crime relating to SSC recruitment bribery.

He said the TMC is practicing a form of governance in Bengal that is anti-democracy and marked by terror and violence. Yechury said the arrest of the powerful TMC leader and minister in the teacher recruitment scam strongly vindicates the CPI-M’s stand on the Trinamool Congress government’s “inextricable link with politics of terror and violence, and corruption.”

He further said that the very fact that Partha Chatterjee was sacked after he was arrested proves once again that the TMC government is “antipeople” and “undemocratic”. He assured that the CPI-M and the Left Front in West Bengal have organized large-scale protest programmes against the government which are gaining the support of many people.

Mr Yechury has further attacked the BJP-led-Central government for delaying progress in the probe of the Sarada chit fund and Narada bribery cases where TMC senior leaders are allegedly involved. He highlighted that a TMC-BJP nexus is becoming apparent. Leniency is being shown in the probe process in certain corruption cases of the TMC, he alleged.

The CPI-M central committee member Sujan Chakraborty, commenting on this alleged nexus, said: “It is very apparent from how a BJP MLA has now been made the Trinamool district president after Mamata Banerjee recently announced a reshuffle in positions. This is unprecedented. This is just to send a message to Delhi by Mamata before she visits there. This is one of the Modi-Mamata deals.” Mr Chakraborty was referring to the BJP’s Bagdah MLA Biswajit Das who later received the TMC party flag from the now arrested minister, Partha Chatterjee.