“She is running everywhere to save party, its leaders”: BJP MP Dilip Ghosh on Modi-Mamata meeting

Kharagpur (West Bengal) [India], March 2 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party’s West Bengal MP Dilip Ghosh has questioned the motive for chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the latter did so as part of efforts to “save” her Trinamool Congress party following the arrest of its member Shahjahan Sheikh.

“Mamata Banerjee is in trouble today; that is why she is running everywhere… She is not getting along with Congress, she is doing a lot to save the party and the leaders…The last time the Prime Minister came here, she did not talk about anything. What is the compulsion today?” Ghosh told ANI on Saturday.

“Leaders like Shahjahan Sheikh (TMC strongman) are slowly coming under the vigil of the Enforcement Directorate and the party is falling apart. That’s why she must have gone to request the Prime Minister (to seek his interference)…,” the senior BJP leader added.

Sheikh, who faces allegagations of “sexual assault and land grabbing” in West Bengal’s Sandeshkhali was arrested earlier this week.

Mamata Banerjee, interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on a two-day tour of West Bengal , at the Raj Bhavan on Friday evening.

Mamata Banerjee clarified that her meeting was both a protocol meeting and a courtesy meeting.

“This is a protocol and courtesy meeting. I am not going to discuss any political things, because this is not at all a political meeting,” she said.

“It is a protocol that if the President or Prime Minister visits, the CM has to meet them,” she added.

Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with the Prime Minister comes at a time when the state claims that the Centre owes the West Bengal government over lakh crore rupees in due.

Earlier, Mamata Banerjee hit out at the central government for blocking the disbursement of funds to the state.

“If by April 1, the Center does not release money for Awaas Yojna, the state government will release funds for the same, just like we are releasing MGNREGA funds for the deprived beneficiaries,” the Chief Minister said.

She announced on February 2 that the state government would pay Rs 21 lakh MGNREGA workers their pending wages by February 21.

The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has consistently protested against the central government, citing delays in fund allocation for initiatives such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and other social security programs in the state.

However, the Ministry of Rural Development stated that the release of funds for West Bengal was stopped on March 9, 2022, under Section 27 of MGNREGA because of the state’s non-compliance with the directives of the central government.

In December last year, a ten-member delegation led by Mamata Banerjee met Prime Minister Modi over the alleged delay in the release of MGNREGA funds to the state.