Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday sought to take the war of words over party funds to the CPI(M) camp stating that the Left party had hundreds of crores of rupees and is among the four top parties in terms of declared assets. The CPI(M) was in top bracket along with parties like the Congress and the BJP in terms of assets, Ms Banerjee said at an election rally here.
“The CPI(M) has built palatial buildings in the name of party offices throughout the state (West Bengal) and has huge properties near the party headquarters in Kolkata. Our party (Trinamul Congress) is nearly 12 years (old) and does not even have `2 crore,” she said. The CPI(M) has been alleging the Trinamul Congress was using black money to fund its election campaign and had also complained to the Election Commission.
The EC has, however, said the documents submitted to it by CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb was “inconclusive” and the papers were unsigned.
Claiming that the CPI(M)-led Left Front government has “ruined” West Bengal in its 34-year rule, Ms Banerjee said “from industry to education to health, the state, which was once at the top, has only gone down and now lags behind other states.”
Earlier, speaking at a rally at Raina also in Burdwan district, the Trinamul Congress chief said “the CPI(M) has taken away lakhs of jobs by closing down factories.”
Alleging that the CPI(M) was trying to create fear psychosis among voters, she said: “They have done this from Keshpur to Nandigram. When Keshpur happened years ago, there was not much television media so it did not come to the fore, but now people know what CPI(M) terror is.”
The CPI(M) has “pocketed” development funds sent by the Centre, she alleged and promised to create jobs for the rural youth if her party is voted to power.