‘Usual BJP formula’: Congress slams arrest of Nandigram candidate in old case, Mamata questions timing | India News
NEW DELHI: The Congress and TMC on Friday mounted a joint attack on the ruling BJP following the arrest of Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate for the upcoming Nandigram bypoll in West Bengal.Both parties pointed to two key factors surrounding Pradhan’s arrest: that it stemmed from an old case, and that it occurred just hours after Mamata Banerjee announced her TMC faction’s support for the Congress in the October 6 byelection.Mamata Banerjee slammed the arrest as the BJP’s “usual formula,” questioning the sudden revival of an old case right after she pledged support to the Congress.“The timing raises serious questions and is the usual BJP formula: dig out an old case. But why now? Just after we announced support to the Congress! The BJP’s politics of vendetta and atrocities show a clear pattern. With manipulation, with vote loot, with intimidation the Election Agency-BJP partnership is killing democracy every day,” the former West Bengal chief minister wrote on X.
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Congress general secretary KC Venugopal asserted that the party would not be cowed by such “petty intimidation tactics.”“Using a dormant 19-year old case from 2007 to arrest our candidate – minutes after Mamata Banerjee ji extended support – is a sign that BJP will go to any lengths to hijack democracy. We are the party that fought the oppressive British rule and drove them away, these petty intimidation tactics by their cheap copycats are not going to scare us,” Venugopal said.
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Mamata Banerjee extended her support to the Congress after her faction’s candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, unexpectedly withdrew her nomination following a meeting with West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari earlier in the day, just a day ahead of the Saturday withdrawal deadline.The Nandigram bypoll was necessitated after Adhikari vacated the seat to retain Bhowanipore, where he had defeated Banerjee in her traditional bastion. tHE BJP has fielded Hasirani Rath, whose son Chandranath Rath—a close aide to Adhikari—was shot dead in May.Votes will be counted on October 9.
