Stop playing dirty games: Trinamool tells BJP

Amid reports that the Income Tax department has sent it a notice, West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday accused the BJP of playing "dirty games" and asked it to desist from giving lessons on "regulatory and financial compliance".

In a strongly-worded statement hours after Union Minister Piyush Goyal cited reports in a section ofmedia about the IT department raising questions about an amount of Rs 24 crore Trinamool spent on campaigning ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Trinamool spokesman Derek O'Brien said: "Please don't give us lessons on regulatory and financial compliance".

Accusing Goyal of "playing dirty games", he said his party has submitted all its accounts to the Election Commission.

"It has replied to communications from the Income-Tax Department. What gives the Minister the authority to say all this? Instead, why doesn't he check if his own house, his own party, is in order?" asked O'Brien, also the Trinamool leader in the Rajya Sabha.

Claiming that the Trinamool has "fulfilled all criteria and that is why" it has been recognised as a national party recently, he alleged Goyal's "so-called press conference is part of a concerted attempt to browbeat political parties in the opposition, independent sections of the media and critics of the current regime in Delhi".

He iterated that the "wild allegations" would only strengthen the Trinamool's resolve.

"The BJP cannot scare us. In time, the people will show this government what they think of it and its theatrics," the statement said.

Reacting to Goyal's allegation that Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee had "opposed demonetisation" as it was "aimed at curbing black money", O'Brien, referring to "Notebandi" (demonetisation) and Nasbandi (forced sterilisation that was attempted during the Emergency in in the 1970s), said: "Nasbandi was punished 40 years ago, Notebandi will be punished soon."

--IANS

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