Thaindian News

Kolkata, March 5 (IANS) Accusing Trinamool Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee of double standards, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirti Azad Saturday snubbed her for not quitting the “scam-tainted” United Progressive Alliance government.

“Mamata Banerjee follows double standards. She quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2001 on the flimsy issue of Tehelka. But the present UPA regime is totally scam-tainted and she has no problems continuing in the alliance,” Azad, former cricketer and BJP MP from Bihar, told reporters here.

“She has to answer why she is with corrupt people. She talks a lot on price rise in West Bengal. But she does not say anything in Delhi, though her party is the second largest UPA component,” he said.

Banerjee, who was railway minister in the NDA government, quit the alliance in 2001 after the weekly magazine Tehelka carried a sting operation on defence ministry deals that led to the resignation of then defence minister George Fernandes and then BJP president Bangaru Laxman.

The UPA has been receiving flak from all quarters over the scams relating to 2G spectrum allocation, the Commonwealth Games and the S-band allocation.

Azad alleged that neither the state’s ruling Left Front nor the main opposition Trinamool Congress were taking up the cause of the refugees from Bangladesh.

“The Trinamool and the Left parties have never taken up their causes. The BJP has been the only exception. We will continues to highlight the plight of these refugees,” he said.

Azad said the BJP will contest all the 294 seats in the coming state assembly polls.

The six-phase assembly polls in West Bengal will be held between April 8 and May 10.