West Bengal news: The Trinamool Congress today (July 26) slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) fact-finding committee report on panchayat elections claiming that it is a diversionary tactic to ease the pressure following the blunder the saffron party allegedly made in Manipur.
The ruling party of West Bengal also questioned why the BJP did not send similar teams to the ethnic strife-affected northeastern state. A fact-finding committee of the BJP, which looked into incidents of violence during the recent West Bengal panchayat polls, on Wednesday submitted its report to party president JP Nadda, alleging that a sickening symbol of shameful democracy was witnessed during the elections.
"The BJP is rattled and perturbed. The fact-finding teams of the BJP are visiting Bengal but are not visiting Manipur. We have seen how team members of these fact-finding missions conduct press conferences on Bengal from Delhi. But none of these fact-finding missions have visited Manipur," senior TMC minister Shashi Panja said.
She wondered why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to make a statement on the ongoing strife in Manipur on the floor of Parliament.
"The parliament session is on, but we are yet to hear the PM speak on the ethnic strife on the floor of the Parliament. The entire country is waiting for the PM's statement in Parliament. These teams visiting states ruled by opposition parties are diversionary tactics," she said.
No-confidence motion against govt:
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion against the government by the Congress on behalf of the opposition alliance, to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the contentious Manipur issue.
Panja accused the saffron camp of unleashing terror in Bengal during the civic polls and said the state BJP had been caught on several occasions using fake videos.
"They are using fake videos to malign the state. The BJP should stop maligning Bengal and look at Manipur," she said.
While conducting a press conference in New Delhi, BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was the convenor of the fact-finding committee, said the country must know that democracy has ended in Bengal.
Prasad claimed that an overpowering fear became the hallmark of these polls and cited several incidents of violence, including killings and the suffering of the families targeted for political reasons.
Last week, Banerjee claimed that 29 people, mostly from her TMC, died in poll-related violence since the election date was announced on June 8. Police sources, however, have put the number of fatalities at 38 but agree that at least 60 per cent of those who lost their lives were affiliated with the TMC.
The TMC registered an emphatic victory in rural polls by bagging a staggering 79 per cent of the gram panchayats, 92 per cent of panchayat samitis, and all zilla parishads.
(With PTI inputs)
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