BJP Threatened My Family Members To Join Party Before 2021 Polls: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari have locked horns over the ED's claims of a Kolkata-based company generating money from illegal coal mining.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using central agencies to target her family. She claimed that the BJP attempted to pressure her brother and sister-in-law into joining the saffron party ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, but their efforts were in vain.

“My brother and my sister-in-law were threatened and asked to join the BJP. But they didn't give in to the pressure tactics,” she said during a speech in the assembly. Banerjee also lashed out at the BJP and the Leader of Opposition in West Bengal, Suvendu Adhikari, for using the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to intimidate leaders of the ruling party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC). 

Banerjee's comments came after the ED seized Rs 1.4 crore from a Kolkata-based company. The agency claimed that the cash was generated from illegal coal smuggling and was being laundered by a person close to a highly influential political figure. Soon after the CBI's action, Adhikari started tweeting pictures of Manjit Singh Grewal, also known as 'Jitti Bhai', with family members of Banerjee. The TMC supremo responded by flashing pictures of Adhikari with Manjit and demanding an explanation.

“The BJP thinks it can do anything it wants just because it has the ED and CBI as its allies. But it doesn't know that no everyone can be terrorised using the central agencies,” Banerjee was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

Without naming anyone, Banerjee hinted at Adhikari's protest in 2009 over not being included in the TMC ministers in the Congress-led UPA-2 ministry. She pointed out that Adhikari skipped the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministry, despite his father being inducted.

Adhikari dismissed Banerjee's allegations as a reflection of panic in the TMC camp. He stated that the truth would soon be revealed and the culprits would be punished. The latest developments have added to the growing tension between the BJP and the TMC, with each party accusing the other of using federal agencies for political gain.