Kolkata:
Ahead of the first round of voting in West Bengal on Monday, the political war of words has stepped up. The CPM today accused Mamata Banerjee of using over Rs 33 crore of black money to fund her party's campaign.
How is Mamata Banerjee paying for the helicopters she is using to campaign? That was one of the many questions raised by CPM central committee member Goutam Deb who also accused her party of what he called the Trinamool coupon scam.
"From March 25, 226 candidates of Trinamool were called to Trinamool Bhavan and given Rs 15 lakh in cash which means Rs 33 crore 90 lakh in all...The candidates were to be given coupons of Rs 100, Rs 200 and Rs 500 denomination to raise public donation for their election expenses but the receipt part of each coupon was detached from the counterpart and later burnt," Goutam Deb said.
"How did they raise funds? Not a single coupon went to the public. The portion of coupon that was meant for the public were put into sacks and burnt in the dead of night. I have photographs of that," he claimed.
The Trinamool Congress was quick to dismiss the allegation.
"Election Commission rules have been broken by the CPM candidate and the mentally disbalanced Goutam Deb. The code of conduct says you cannot make wild allegations. When will personal attacks stop? First she was Maoist, then anti-development, now they are attacking Mamata's honesty?" said Partha Chatterjee, leader, Trinamool.
Reacting to the charge by Deb, Mamata Banerjee said "the CPM is fearing severe drubbing in the elections and has been levelling rubbish claims and spreading canards against us".
Addressing an election rally at Chapra in Nadia district, Banerjee scoffed at Deb for making such allegations and said "failing to solve the burning problems of the state, his party has been speaking nonsense and spreading canards against Trinamool Congress. Why should we be accountable to you for our expenses?"
(
With PTI inputs)