The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have conducted continuous raids and investigations at the residence of several Trinamool leaders in the North 24 Parganas for the last one year.
This list includes the names of several ministers, MLAs, former ministers, municipal chairman, former chairman, and councilors of TMC. The ruling party of the state seems to be perturbed about the prevailing political scenario.
Trinamool leaders are concerned that the BJP is using the CBI and ED to target the TMC leaders in North 24 Parganas in order to weaken the party’s chances of winning the Lok Sabha elections in 2025.
The ED officials accompanied by Central Forces conducted investigations in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal for a variety of reasons, including chit fund scams, post-poll violence cases, recruitment irregularities, and ration scams.
Lately on Friday, the ED raided the residence and office of the West Bengal’s Fire Minister, Sujit Bose. They also searched at the residence of Trinamool Leader Tapas Roy, who is the MLA of Baranagore.
The North 24 Parganas is a large and important district in West Bengal. The district has 5 Lok Sabha constituencies, Bongaon, Barasat, Bashirhat, Dum Dum, Barrackpore, of which the BJP won in Bongaon and Barrackpore in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Again, in the past, the then Trinamool Leader Tapan Sikdar, who is now the supporter of BJP won the election. In 2019, in Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency , the BJP lost by a narrow margin of 3% .Trinamool leader Sougata Roy got 5 lakhs 12 thousand votes. Whereas the BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya got 4 lakhs 59 thousand votes. Thus, Sougata Roy won by a margin of 53 thousand votes.
Even though Arjun Singh won the Barasat Lok Sabha seat for the BJP in 2019, the winning margins were not very large. In Barasat, the then BJP leader, Singh won by a margin of only 14,000 votes. But he has now defected to TMC.
In Barasat constituency, Trinamool’s Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar won by a margin of 1 lakh 10 thousand votes , while the Forward Bloc got 1 lakh 24 thousand votes .
In Bongaon, the BJP’s Matua leader Shantanu Thakur won by a comfortable margin.
The BJP has set a target of winning 4 of the 5 Lok Sabha seats in North 24 Parganas in the 2024 elections. Suvendu Adhikari has been repeatedly claiming this publicly .The BJP has essentially given up on the Basirhat seats because of the large presence of the minority population.
The Trinamool Congress believes that the BJP is targeting its strong leaders of North 24 Parganas, in an attempt to win the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The Barasat Lok Sabha constituency includes Habra and Madhyamgram assembly constituencies. The MLA of Habra, Forest Minister, Jyotipriya Mallick was arrested by the ED, MLA Rathin Ghosh’s house was also searched by the ED. Sujit Bose’s constituency also falls within the Barasat Lok Sabha constituency.
Thus the Trinamool leaders are well aware about the BJP’s strategy and are taking steps to counter it.
In Bongaon, Shankar Adhya, a powerful leader, was arrested by ED. At the same time, another influential leader of Sandeshkhali, Sheikh Shahjahan,has stowed himself away from the eyes of ED.
In the meanwhile, ED has questioned for multiple times, the Kamarhati Municipality chairman Gopal Saha . Aparna Moulik has also been interrogated in connection with the investigation into the municipal recruitment corruption. ED has also conducted a search at the house of Kamarhati’s current MLA and former minister Madan Mitra.
The Central Forces have been conducting a wide-ranging investigation at the municipalities of Baranagar, Kamarhati, Panihati, Titagarh, and North Dum Dum.
The ED’s raid on Tapas Roy’s house has been criticized by many in the party. They believe that the raid is politically motivated and that Roy is a victim of BJP’s attempts to intimidate and demoralize Trinamool leaders.They argue that Tapas Roy is a gentleman and that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on his part.
The TMC can well understand the BJP’s game. The upcoming Lok Sabha elections in North 24 Parganas are likely to be a closely fought contest between the BJP and the Trinamool. BJP’s leader Sajal Ghosh has dismissed the Trinamool’s claims, saying that the BJP will win the elections anyway. He also accused the Trinamool of being a party of thieves.
