Posters with Mamata Banerjee's pics defaced ahead of her Goa visit

Several hoardings carrying pictures of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were defaced in Goa ahead of her visit to the coastal state, following which the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday condemned the act and claimed it reflects the BJP's "intolerance".

Banerjee is scheduled to visit Goa on Friday, ahead of the state Assembly polls due next year. The TMC has already announced its decision to contest the state Assembly elections.

The BJP on Sunday claimed the Goa unit of the Trinamool Congress posted a cartoon on Twitter that showed party supremo Mamata Banerjee trying to crush Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant under her foot.

A statement by Goa CM Pramod Sawant's office claimed the tweet by the Banerjee-led party was deleted immediately. The CMO had circulated the screenshot of the purported tweet. Later, a number of posters and hoardings, put up by the TMC, carrying pictures of Banerjee were vandalised in the coastal state.

Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, TMC's Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said, "The only woman chief minister (in the country at present) has been insulted. We all know this is not the culture of Goa."

He claimed the BJP was damaging local businesses, as contractors will have to pay from their own pocket for all the vandalised hoardings.

The TMC leader said if the BJP wants to fight against his party, then it should do it politically. "Why don't you respond to the charge sheet placed before the public," he said referring to the 10-point charge sheet released by the TMC earlier this week against the present BJP government in Goa as well as earlier dispensations.

TMC's Goa unit leader Yatish Naik claimed the act (of vandalising hoardings) reflects the 'BJP's intolerant behaviour'. "They have no track record of good governance. The BJP-appointed governor, Satya Pal Malik, also said the party government in Goa indulged in corruption in everything," he added.

Former Goa governor Malik recently accused the state government of corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic. "There was corruption in everything the Goa government did (during the COVID-19 pandemic). I was removed for my allegation of corruption against the Goa government," Malik, now the governor of Meghalaya, had alleged in a TV interview.