Nothing else explains Mamata Banerjee's silence on Partha Chatterjee except admission of crime: BJP

New Delhi, July 24

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday slammed the Trinamool Congress and said that the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's silence over the arrest of the state's Commerce and Industries Minister and close confidante Partha Chatterjee is an admission of corruption committed by the latter.

Chatterjee was arrested on Saturday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the recruitment irregularities in West Bengal School Service Commission when he was the state Education Minister.

West Bengal BJP Co-incharge Amit Malviya tweeted: "Nothing else explains Mamata Banerjee's silence on Partha Chatterjee, her close confidant, now in jail, except an admission of the crime, when she had hit the road to defend a police officer! Mamata may be trying to distance herself from Partha, but their association is well known."

Hitting out at the West Bengal Chief Minister, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Saturday said: "In a well-planned conspiracy, Mamata Banerjee is trying to target the central law enforcement agencies and its senior officers and spreading lies so that her political and financial crimes remain under the carpet and are not made public. It is a ploy to hush up cases of massive corruption and scam of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government."

Referring to ED seizures made from Chatterjee's close associate, Chandrasekhar added: "Ironically till a few days ago West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee used to praise her Minister Partha Chatterjee and his associates for their 'good work', now the entire world knows what kind of work they were doing. It is because of the 'good work' that illegal money and property worth crores is being accumulated."

BJP National Vice-President Dilip Ghosh said: "A few days ago Chief Minister Banerjee had openly praised Minister Chatterjee and his close female associate. It is also a truth that under Banerjee's government, the recruitment process has never been fair and transparent, and in every government recruitment process there has been massive corruption and nepotism.

"Mamata Banerjee claims that she knows everything, but she does not know what her Ministers are doing."