The leaders of TMC, one of the most corrupt parties in India’s political history are facing tough time answering the questions of the common people over ‘cut money’. The political campaign of the party for 2021 assembly election is being looked after by shrewd political strategist Prashant Kishore. He has asked 1,000 party leaders to visit 10,000 villages in next 100 days. The leaders participating in the program include senior functionaries and ministers.
These leaders face tough questions on variety of issues like ‘cut money’, arrogance of local leaders and the corruption of senior functionaries from villagers. “Some people are happy, but there are others who are questioning us on cut money, arrogance and misbehaviour by local leaders and the corruption charges leveled against them. We are facing a tough time answering these questions,” accepted a TMC leader.
The commoners also asked questions about why corrupt and arrogant leaders are still in the party. “A number of people have also asked us why we were hesitating to throw out corrupt and arrogant leaders from the party. We will submit our observations to the leadership,” said a TMC leader who is about to give a report to top management about the feedback of the people.
In June this year, Mamata Banerjee has asked the lower rungs of the party to refrain from corrupt activities or taking bribes from people in return of public services. She even asked TMC officials to return ‘cut money’ made from various central and state schemes meant for the people of West Bengal. This came off as a serious admission by Mamata Banerjee of rampant corruption in the administration.
Many high ranking politicians of Trinamool Congress were found to be accepting cash-bribes in exchange for providing unofficial favors to a company in Narada sting operation carried out by Mathew Samuel. The TMC MPs found to be involved in the case are Saugata Roy, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Prasun Bannerjee, Suvendu Adhikari and Sultan Ahmad. The state ministers– Madan Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee and Firhad Hakim and Iqbal Ahmed, the-then deputy mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, were also found to be involved in the scam. The case is being investigated by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and a parliamentary ethics committee.
Leaders of TMC were also found to be involved in Saradha group financial scandal. The scandal involved 200 companies and as many as 17 lakh people were cheated in the state of West Bengal and neighboring states of Eastern India. The scandal is being investigated by the CBI, the topmost leadership of TMC was found to be involved in the scam including two former Rajya Sabha members- Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Ghosh. Another top leader of TMC, Madan Mitra, former minister of sports and transport, was found to be involved in the scam.
The leadership of TMC has used state machinery of personal financial gains and therefore it is obvious that a massive anti-corruption drive is needed to win back the trust of the people. However, it will be painfully difficult for the party to answer to the people as attempts a massive outreach before elections. In 2019 general election, BJP won 18 seats in the state out of 40. The party also won 40.23 percent of polled votes which is only 3 percent less than 43.28 percent votes bagged by TMC. In last general election, for the first time it was evident that TMC is not invincible. Mamata Banerjee is very anxious about 2021 assembly election and therefore hired professional campaign strategist Prashant Kishore.