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The multi-crore Saradha ponzi scam has emerged as a major poll plank in the Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal with major political parties like the Congress, BJP and CPI(M) training their guns against the ruling Trinamool Congress.
With the CPI(M) demanding a CBI probe into the scam that defrauded lakhs of small investors, the party's politburo member and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee accused the Mamata Banerjee-run government of becoming a "symbol" of the Saradha Group which defrauded lakhs in the state.
"It is a scam of thousands of crores of rupees. Where has the money gone and to whom? Everything will come out. It (TMC) talks about being truthful, but it is a government of lies," he alleged.
"Going by what I see every day in the media, this government can be seen as a symbol of Saradha and not of honesty ... the day is not far when it will fall," he said.
The BJP also had no kind words. The state BJP unit president Rahul Sinha blamed the Trinamool Congress for the mushrooming of money laundering companies and joined the chorus with Congress and CPI(M) for a CBI probe.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been vociferously maintaining that the seed of the scourge was planted during the erstwhile Left Front regime which saw the proliferation of such companies raising money from people promising unrealistic returns. The issue became more murkier of late with both Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee trading charges against each other with the former pitching for a CBI probe into the matter much to the dislike of the chief minister.
