West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee protesting against the Centre's Land Bill in Kolkata on 8 April, 2015 (Photo: Press Trust of India)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a Central Bureau of Investigation notice to her party, the Trinamool Congress, asking for details of its accounts, saying "nothing happens without his orders"
"The CBI is the Prime Minister's department, nothing happens without his orders," Ms Banerjee alleged.
She was addressing a public rally for the April 18 Kolkata Municipal Corporation elections at Beliaghata in Bengal's capital.
"It has not sent notice to any other party in the country, so why has it sent to us?" the Trinamool Congress chief asked, alleging a "political vendetta" by the BJP.
"It has been done as the Trinamool Congress is the only party which can take on the BJP," she claimed.
Ms Banerjee also alleged that the CBI was "sold out" to the West Bengal unit of BJP.
"They cannot fight us politically, so they are using CBI," she said, claiming, such issues cropped up only before elections and then died down.
"As the KMC election is nearing, they (BJP) have started to make issues out of non-issues, I can tell these things will again crop up before the 2016 Assembly elections in the state," she said on the CBI's recent notice to the TMC All-India General Secretary Subrata Bakshi to furnish details of its accounts.
Mr Bakshi replaced Mukul Roy, once the most-trusted aide of Ms Banerjee, as the party's all-India general secretary in mid-February, after Mr Roy fell out of favour with the party chief.
"People of West Bengal will answer them. The party, the leader of which has sold his coat for a few crores of rupees is questioning our source of funds," Ms Banerjee said in an indirect reference to PM Modi's coat which was recently auctioned.
"Those who have spent unlimited funds for Lok Sabha elections are questioning Trinamool Congress' income," she alleged.
"It's my hard-earned money with which I've bought canvas, brush and paint. I can show you that three strokes of my brush can earn me Rs 10 lakh," Ms Banerjee claimed.
"Who are you to question me? I am not going to ask you what I should do with my paintings. I will sell my paintings for Rs 1,000 crore, who are you to question me on that?" she said about the opposition parties' allegations about her paintings being sold for lakhs of rupees.
"You can also try your hand in paintings and check whether people will buy them or not. On one side there is BJP and on the other there is Biman (Left Front chairman Biman Bose)," she said.
"I can write and you cannot write. Nobody has stopped you from writing. You can write but nobody will buy books written by you because they will not believe your writings. But I can challenge you that if I write a book, they will have the maximum sale," she claimed, stating that her books have the maximum sale in the annual Kolkata International Book Fair.
She also alleged "bias" on part of a section of the media who, she claimed, were "selectively targetting" her party.
The chief minister claimed that the Trinamool Congress, which is running the Kolkata Municipal Corporation at present, has made Kolkata the "best" among the non-planned cities in the country.
"The city is beautiful now and we have ensured the best civic amenities for the citizens. We have managed to turn it around in five years from the mess it was under the Left Front rule prior to 2010," Ms Banerjee said.