Trinamool, BJP in secret coalition for Lok Sabha polls: Buddha

Former West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today alleged that Trinamool Congress had secretly tied up with BJP for the coming 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Bhattacharjee claimed that TMC had joined hands with the saffron party as it prepares to go into the elections next year with Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

"There is a big fight in front of us. (There is) danger ahead. TMC has an understanding with Modi, but are not disclosing it.

"We won't allow BJP to set up a base in Bengal by holding TMC's hands," Bhattacharjee told a party rally in the erstwhile Marxist bastion of Hooghly district.

Pointing out that TMC and BJP have been allies before, he said that the biggest question now was whether Modi was eyeing the Bengal votebank through TMC.

"We take pride that Bengal is the land of (Rabindranath) Tagore, Netaji (Subhash Chandra Bose) and Swami Vivekananda... We have to be alert so that the coalition (BJP-TMC) doesn't enter Bengal. I know the people of Bengal will never allow that to happen," the CPI(M) Politburo member said.

Meanwhile, demanding a CBI probe into the multi-crore Saradha ponzi scam, he said that although prime accused Sudipta Sen was in jail, people were yet to receive an account of the company's assets.

"The government just doesn't seem to be worried. They are celebrating with so many festivals and giving away awards. Lakhs of rupees from the state exchequer is being wasted in such exercises," he said.

He alleged that funds meant for rations for the poor and for the building of schools and hospitals were being spent on clubs.

Criticising the TMC government for claiming it had introduced a host of development initiatives in the state, he said, "Bengal is drowning".

No new hospitals, schools, colleges, power plants, cold storages or 'sabji mandis' for farmers have been constructed by the government, he claimed.

"Only mere announcements are made when the Chief Minister travels," he said, adding that farmers were being driven to suicide in the state as they were not getting the right price for their produce.