West Bengal Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya on Tuesday attacked the TMC government, saying it has done corruption in the state. Bhattacharya is the grand old party's candidate from the North Kolkata Lok Sabha constituency. "I will start a movement from North Kolkata. This government in Bengal has done corruption in all ways and it is deep-rooted now," the Congress leader said.
"On one hand, my fight is with the BJP and on the other hand, it is with TMC. We have made an alliance with the left parties. Congress party and left parties are fighting together in the whole of Bengal. By 2026, the Congress and the left parties will come to power in Bengal," Bhattacharya added while speaking to ANI.
The Congress and TMC are part of the INDIA bloc nationally, but they are contesting against each other in West Bengal. The Congress and Left are contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha elections together. In Bengal, the Congress is contesting on 12 of 42 seats, while the Left is fighting on 23 seats.
Congress' Pradip Bhattacharya is up against TMC's Sudip Bandyopadhyay and BJP's Tapas Roy. Sudip Bandyopadhyay is the sitting MP from the seat, which he won with 49.96 per cent votes in 2019. Kolkata Nort will go to polls in the final phase on June 1.
Ahead of the elections, West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhary had targeted Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over corruption in Bengal. In a press conference, he said Mamata Banerjee should not compare herself with Arvind Kejriwal and Hemant Soren, who had been arrested by the ED in corruption cases.
"Scams have happened in West Bengal and their investigation is being done under the supervision of the Supreme Court," Adhir said while responding to a question on actions by central agencies against the opposition leaders.