Mamata defends CPI-M?s black money remark

Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has defied allegations made by CPI-M leader Gautam Deb that the party was funding a nearly-Rs 34 crore-poll campaign through illicit means.

“Even for drinking a cup of tea in my department I pay from my own purse and not the railway funds,” the Railway Minister said in Nadia district.

On Saturday, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) leader said that they were about to lodge a formal complaint with the Election Commission with ?concrete evidence? of black money and fake donation coupons used in the alleged racket.

The Trinamool Congress was quick to rubbish the allegations, countering Deb?s accusations by saying the CPI-M had ?looted? the state during its uninterrupted-over-three-decade reign in West Bengal.

The accusations of using black money to fund poll campaigns comes as the latest in the series of snipes and counter-snipes that the two parties have been hurling in each other’s direction in the run up to the uber-hyped Assembly elections that begin Monday in Bengal.

West Bengal housing development minister Gautam Deb on Saturday accused TMC chief and Union Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee of cooking up the plan along with Union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy.

?Trinamool Congress had called all 226 candidates, who are contesting the elections, at its Trinamool Bhavan party office on 25 March, 2011 and handed over Rs15 lakh each for carrying out the election campaigns,? Deb said.

?The party has mobilised cash of nearly Rs 34 crore just for the campaigning purpose,? Deb told reporters here at a news conference. Declining to give out the name, he said only one candidate of the party had refused to accept the money.

?I will not disclose the name of the person who refused to accept the money, but I can give you the number of Upen Biswas (Trinamool candidate from Bagda in North 24 Parganas district). You can call him and ask for more details,” he said.

?The entire plan was a brainchild of Banerjee and her close associate…Mukul Roy. The EC must take action against the duo and all Trinamool candidates who accepted the ill-gotten money,? he said.

?Mukul Roy should be arrested immediately. There are still a few sacks full of those coupons at Trinamool Bhavan at their EM Bypass party office,? he alleged, saying that the TMC had done its best to make the money appear like public donations.

Trashing Deb?s startling statements as ?nonsense?, Trinamool Congress member and leader of the Opposition Partha Chatterjee said, the senior CPI-M leader had ?lost his mental balance? and ?forgotten his sense of political courtesy?.

?The CPI-M has looted West Bengal for the past 34 years. People of this state are quite aware of that fact. They will give answer to Deb?s false statement through ballot in the coming polls,? he said.