BJP can't 'buy' dedicated TMC members, defectors will be defeated in Assembly polls, says Mamata Banerjee

Alipurduar: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, without naming former minister Rajib Banerjee — who recently quit the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and joined the  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — alleged that irregularities have been detected in recruitment of forest department personnel during his tenure. The TMC supremo, training her guns at all deserters, said they would be defeated in the upcoming Assembly polls and “their shops will be closed after the elections”. “A person who was responsible for the recruitment of ‘Bana Sahayaks’ in the forest department indulged in corrupt methods. We will investigate it. Everything will be investigated. The person after indulging in corruption has now joined the BJP. He is now lecturing others,” she said. Rajib Banerjee, who was a forest minister in the state Cabinet, switched over to the BJP last week. Slamming turncoats, who left the TMC to cross over to the BJP, Banerjee claimed that only the “greedy ones” are joining the saffron party. “Those who want to leave the party should do so. The doors are open. But if you are in the party you have to work like a disciplined soldier. Let me tell you, those who have switched political allegiance will be defeated in the Assembly polls, their shops will be closed after the polls,” she said. The BJP can buy some corrupt leaders but it can never buy a dedicated member or cadre of the TMC, she asserted, while addressing a party meeting in Alipurduar. The chief minister, raking up the “insider versus outsider” debate, also said that people of Bengal state will rule this state, and not those coming from Gujarat. Taking a dig at the BJP for sending a chartered plane to fly TMC turncoats to Delhi for induction in the saffron camp, Banerjee said they don’t have funds to bear the travel expenditure of migrant workers, but would not mind shelling out money to transport corrupt leaders.