Trinamool Congress’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay is a five-time MP from the Kolkata Uttar constituency, but this time he faces a tough fight from former party colleague and now Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Tapas Roy.
Roy says Bandyopadhyay has never done anything for West Bengal and that’s why he will win the seat for the BJP by more than 1 lakh votes and there will be “poriborton” (change) in the state.
“My fight is not against Sudip Bandyopadhyay,” the BJP leader told News18 in an exclusive conversation. “He is not at all a factor here. He could not spend his MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme) funds. He has never raised questions for Kolkata Uttar and for Bengal. People do not like him now. People are disillusioned with the TMC and more so with Sudip. He does not meet his own party workers, colleagues, and strong supporters of TMC.”
The former TMC MLA even called Bandyopadhyay a “parasite politician”. “He never worked hard, he never did any movement, he has badmouthed his own leaders,” said Roy to News18. “He is a bad person.”
The BJP candidate denied TMC allegations that he recently switched parties because he was on the Enforcement Directorate’s radar.
“The ED is no reason. I challenge anyone that I have never done any corruption in the last 52 years. Sudip Bandyopadhyay is corrupt and because I spoke about him, he did something because of which ED came to me. He was involved in a wheat scam and in the Rose Valley scam. He is a very corrupt person. He should celebrate 50 years of his corrupt life. He stays in a flat within a school’s premises. How can he do that? He has made a party office there. I wrote a letter to the Election Commission because of that.”
This is Narendra Modi’s election, said the BJP leader. “This an election for the country. This is not Mamata Banerjee’s election. She will never become Prime Minister. This is a central election and Modi has given good governance. The people will vote for him. On June 4, India will see Modi’s hattrick.”
Speaking about the Sandeshkhali row, he termed it evidence of the TMC’s years of “misrule”.
Corruption is a big issue in Bengal, he said. “They (TMC) have looted everything. Torture of women and ‘lootraj’ is going on. These are the reasons why I left the party,” he said.
The BJP will bag more than 30 of West Bengal’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the ongoing seven-phase elections and may even cross 35, asserted Roy, claiming that the TMC will remain in single digits.
Explore in-depth coverage of Lok Sabha Election 2024 Schedule, Voter Turnout, Upcoming Phase And Much More At News18 Website
Comments
0 comment