Second is the case of deployment of para military forces during the municipal elections. Though the Mamata government had approached the Union home ministry for it, only a couple of days back the MHA refused to comply with its request. Even the State Election Commissioner, Sushant Ranjan Upadhyaya had written to the home ministry. But it was not entertained. SEC said, “I have received a letter from the state government which said that the Centre had written to them about the unavailability of central forces because the force have been deployed at other states and also at Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas”.

It is quite intriguing why the Modi government was reluctant to provide security forces. In fact the TMC leaders nursed the view that it was with the intentions of giving a bad name to the state government of using muscle power and rigging the elections, the Modi government was not too keen to deploy central forces. Surprisingly on April 11, the state president of the BJP at a public meeting revealed that the MHA had conveyed to him that it would deploy the central forces. Strange is the operational behaviour of the MHA. The message should have come through the official channel or at least directly to the state Election Commission. Instead the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh chose the party state chief to send the message. This only unravels the deep hatred towards Mamata Banerjee. .

How to interpret these two actions of the BJP? In the case of seeking details of the accounts, it is explicit that had the CBI not intended to coerce and humiliate TMC and Mamata, it certainly should not have sent notice to the party. In a normal course it should have requested the Supreme Court, which has been monitoring the case to issue a legal notice to the Trinamool Congress for getting the input. It could have approached the Income Tax or the Election Commission. What was quite interesting was the agency had sought a reply in seven days. In a shrewd tactical move, the CBI wanted to tell the Bengalis of the state “look here is a party that has survived and thrived on scam money”. The most interesting aspect of the incident was the CBI calling the general secretary over phone and seeking the details of the account. It is beyond comprehension how could CBI take to this audacious anti-democratic measure. How could it ask a political party over phone to submit its accounts, even if arguably it had clinching proof of its involvement in corrupt practices and having ill gotten money? Intriguingly the CBI took upon itself to punish the Trinamool just on the eve of the municipal elections.

During this period Mukul Roy was the general secretary of the party. If the CBI could lay its hand on some fictitious operation, as is being made out, in that backdrop it should have summoned and arrested Roy as it did with three other prominent leaders of the party. But in the case of Roy, who is supposed to have become a friend of BJP chief, it adopted a very lenient attitude. To be fair to the agency in February it had sent the notice to Mukul Roy who was the general secretary of the party before his eventual removal from the post in February. Roy, a TMC Rajya Sabha member, had asked the CBI to contact Bakshi. But since Roy was the general secretary during that period and he still continues to be in the TMC, the CBI should have summoned him.

What is really astonishing is the CBI has instead summoned the new general secretary Subrata Bakshi!! By asking Bakshi to submit the account, CBI in fact was trying to shield Roy. It was a shrewd move to deflect the responsibility. Failure of Bakshi to comply the CBI notice would have provided the agency with the opportunity to lay its hand on Bakshi and arrest him.

But the CBI miserably failed to give a shape to its strategy. Well before expiry of the dead line the TMC submitted the statement of the accounts. Ironically detractors of Mamata interpreted this as the defeat of Mamata, But she was unfazed. For her it was better to protect her leaders from being maligned than turning their position vulnerable. Intriguingly even before the proper verification of the accounts, precisely within an hour of depositing the papers, the CBI leaked the information to the media that it does not appear to be complete. How could a CBI officer come out with such observation?

The CBI did not resort to this nature of action even in the case of Lalu Prasad identified as the prime accused in fodder scam. Like Saradha scam, in fodder scam too a number of important and powerful politicians were involved. Obviously the CBI in fodder scam should have asked the RJD for the accounts statement. This the worst type of game the CBI has been playing.

If at all the CBI really intended to know the nature of the money transaction and trace whether Saradha money has been used by the Trinamool, it should have approached the income tax and the Election Commission. Mamata was politically correct when she said, 'If you want my party's account, go and take it from income tax. Instead of that you are sending me notice. Notices will pile up and we will send them back to you. You have come to power and are sending me notices. Tomorrow you will not be in power. The people will send you notice'. Notwithstanding her angry outburst, she acted in a cool manner and her party submitted documents to the CBI - three days after the agency re-sent a notice to the party seeking details of the its accounts. Mamata did not allow the space the CBI was looking for.

Based on the Trinamool’s reply, the CBI plans to summon Mamata and a couple of senior leaders. The CBI also desires to interrogate the auditors of the ruling party. One development is quite noticeable the CBI targeted the organization only after Mamata marginalized the number two person of the TMC, Mukul Roy, on the suspicion that he was hobnobbing with the BJP and has a plan with the tacit support from BJP chief Amit Shah to split the party.

Notwithstanding its sustained efforts, the fact of the matter is the CBI has failed to malign the image of Mamata. The electorates have only one question: if they have clinching evidences against Mamata then why are they not arresting her? Why is the CBI indulging in witch hunt? Though a section of the powerful media has launched a campaign against her, people by and large are reluctant to subscribe to what the CBI or her opponents say. The non-Bengali voters who at one stage were alleged to have supposedly shifted their allegiance to BJP are back with her. The mood in the TMC about the poll prospect is quite upbeat. (IPA Service)