CPI(M) MLA got Rs 3 crore to switch to TMC, alleges Adhir

Malda (WB): West Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury today alleged that ruling Trinamool Congress paid Rs three crore to CPI(M) MLA Dipali Biswas to switch side, a charge denied by the legislator.

"I had a talk with Dipali Biswas's husband who said they got Rs 3 crore to join Trinamool Congress. He said it was a huge amount for them and they could not withstand the temptation," Chowdhury alleged while addressing an orientation programme of Congress workers here in Malda district.

Biswas and a Congress MLA of Bankura district joined TMC at the party's 'martyrs day rally' in Kolkata on July 21.

The CPI(M) MLA from Gazole denied the allegation.

"Chowdhury has lost his mental balance as he failed to keep his own flocks together. People do not believe him any more. He needs medical treatment," Biswas told PTI.

The WBPCC president said it takes 148 seats to get majority in West Bengal and TMC secured 211 seats but Mamata Banerjee is still not satisfied.

"It appears she has become a political omnivore and is ready to commit all types of illegal acts to satiate this hunger," he alleged.
In the last Assembly election, 2.45 crore people voted for TMC while opposition parties secured 2.15 crore votes and the difference is only 30 lakh, Chowdhury said.

So it turns out that TMC got only 38 more votes than opposition in each of the 70,000 booths of the state, he said adding as Mamata Banerjee knows that the opposition can easily bridge this small difference, she is scared.

That is why TMC is either engineering defection or implicating opposition party workers and leaders in false cases, Chowdhury alleged.

TMC, which drew a blank in Congress stronghold Malda district in the last Assembly poll held around four months ago, gained control of Malda Zilla Parishad after 14 Congress and Left members defected to TMC on August 22. Congress and CPI(M)-led Left Front fought the Assembly election in an alliance.

Congress district president Mausam Benajir Noor, however, claimed the party still enjoys majority in Parishad.

"TMC's claim to have secured majority in Malda Zilla Parishad is baseless and we will prove that the majority is still with us," she said in the same programme.

On the Supreme Court verdict on Singur, Chowdhury said it was originally farmers' movement and Banerjee came later.

Though Banerjee is trying to project that the verdict came because of her, the case that brought this judgement was not filed by anyone associated with TMC, he added.