Mamata Banerjee slams BJP for ‘boasting’ about office

Baharampur : West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday slammed the BJP for “boasting” about its new party office in Delhi and said a political party should be humble in its approach. She also wondered where did the funds to build such a huge office come from.

“They (BJP) are boasting about inaugurating the world’s largest party office. They should be ashamed of it. From where are they getting so much money? A political party should be humble in its approach and should not behave arrogantly,” the Trinamul Congress (TMC) supremo told a public meeting here.

People did not prefer to see a political party sitting on crores of rupees, she said. With an area of over 1.70 lakh sq.ft, the new BJP headquarters in Delhi was bigger than the office of any other political party in the world, party president Amit Shah had said on Sunday.

The BJP was quick to hit back at Ms Banerjee, saying it had not built the party office by siphoning off public money in the name of chit funds. “We have built the party office with our own funds. Our ministers did not siphon off public money in the name of chit funds,” state BJP general secretary Sayantan Basu said. West Bengal was rocked by chit fund scams a few years back and the names of certain Ttinamul leaders had also figured in those.

Ms Banerjee also accused the BJP-led Central government of helping fraudsters swindle public money and alleged that a conspiracy was hatched in this regard ahead of demonetisation in November, 2016. It was “India’s misfortune” that it was being ruled by a party like the BJP, she said.