Rudy takes on Mamata, says BJP was attacked similarly before LS polls

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Thursday hit back at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for alleging a political vendetta against her Trinamool Congress (TMC) by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Saradha chit-fund scam.

"The investigation is being carried out on the court's orders. Corruption cannot be licensed by a certificate. Appropriate steps under the purview of the law should be taken against corrupt politicians and corruption, whether in West Bengal or any other part of the nation, and the citizens should be made aware of the same," Rudy told ANI here.

"As far as the BJP is concerned, it was attacked in a similar way by various other political parties even before the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 but all those parties have now come to accept the fact that the BJP is in majority power by its own mettle," he added.

Rudy further expressed confidence that the BJP would emerge victorious in Jammu and Kashmir this time.

"Post the declaration of election results, the BJP would rise to power in Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi respectively. And it is not very far in the future that after Bihar, the BJP would assume office in West Bengal," he said.

Earlier in the day, Mamata accused the BJP of political vendetta against her Trinamool Congress and reiterated that her party had no connection with the Saradha chit-fund scam.

"The people who are accusing our party's involvement in the Saradha chit scam should first look at themselves. Our party has nothing to do with the scam. In fact, TMC is the only party which has no relation with any scam. Our government was not even in power when the scam took place," said Banerjee.

"This is political vendetta. We are fighting a battle against the BJP which is why they are jealous. But a democracy can never be bulldozed; we will win the battle," she added.

Last week, the CBI had arrested West Bengal Transport and Sports Minister Madan Mitra in connection with the Saradha scam. Taking strong exception to Mitra's arrest, Banerjee had termed his arrest illegal and unconstitutional.