Senior Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday claimed the Trinamool Congress was in a sorry state of affairs owing to internal conflicts and choice of candidates for the Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal. He claimed the TMC’s poor condition is reflected in its candidates and accused party supremo Mamata Banerjee of being direction-less. Chowdhury also challenged Banerjee to contest against him in the elections. He even questioned Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress, CPI(M)-led Left Front and the TMC are constituents of the opposition bloc INDIA, which suffered a setback with the ruling party in West Bengal announcing candidates for all 42 seats in the state for the coming Lok Sabha Elections.

When Chowdhury was asked about former cricketer Yousuf Pathan being fielded in Bahrampur, which Chowdhury has been representing since 1999, he said any citizen has the right to fight elections in any part of the country. He said the question is whether the party fielding the candidate has a sound reason for doing so or not.

Chowdhury said the Trinamool Congress is fielding candidates from outside the state as the TMC feels that its local leadership does not have credibility among the people. The Congress leader further added that Mamata Banerjee can contest elections from any place in the country. He expressed his desire to contest elections against her or someone whose win or loss would be considered as hers.

Chowdhury challenge Banerjee and said that he challenged Bengal’s didi and said Mamata Banerjee’s cadres were with her but the people’s blessings were with him. He challenged her that he will leave politics if he lost the election, but he wanted a similar promise from the TMC boss if it happened the other way round.

The Citizenship Amendment Act came into effect on Monday, according to a statement released by the government. The CAA, which for the first time makes religion a citizenship test, was approved by Parliament in December 2019 amidst violent protests that claimed over 100 lives and strong opposition from states that are not part of the BJP and opposition lawmakers.

The CAA guidelines have been notified by the ministry of home affairs, opening the door for the law’s nationwide implementation. The law facilitates the process of obtaining Indian citizenship for refugees who are Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, and Parsi, and who are from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

A spokesperson for the Union Home Ministry said eligible individuals could submit citizenship applications in a completely online mode, for which a web portal has been provided. One official stated that no more paperwork will be required from the applicants.

Just weeks before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party will contest for a third consecutive term, the Citizenship Act is being implemented. This is a significant campaign platform for the ruling BJP in the 2019 national election and other state polls.

This comes weeks after Union Home Minister Amit Shah promised that the law would be come into effect ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. CAA is an act of the country. It will definitely be notified. CAA will come into effect before the election and nobody should be confused about this, Shah said.

The goal of the bill is to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from these nations who arrived in India before to December 31, 2014.

Protests had started in several parts of the nation when the bill was passed in 2019.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee said that her government would not permit the state to execute the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) or the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday alleged the Modi government is misusing agencies like the Enforcement Directorate to create fear among opposition leaders and called the ED supporting party of the BJP. Speaking to the media in Pune ahead of the Lok Sabha Elections, Pawar also claimed that steps were being taken to influence elections with the help of agencies like the ED and candidates were being threatened not to contest from the opposition side.

He pointed out figures of the ED’s action between 2005 and 2023 and claimed a total number of 5806 cases were registered and only 25 of them were disposed off. Pawar said the disposal rate is 0.42% and the conviction rate is just 0.4%. He added ED’s budget has gone up from Rs 300 crore in 2022 to Rs 404 crore.

Between 2005 and 2023, 2 governments were in power including the UPA of which NCP(SP) was also a part. During the UPA regime, the ED invested 26 leaders, of which 5 were from Congress and 3 from the BJP. It shows that during the UPA regime ED’s actions was not politically motivated, but after 2014, not a single BJP leader has been questioned.

The former Maharashtra chief minister said these figures raise a doubt if the ED’s actions under the Modi government are politically motivated. He said this indicates the ED has become a supporting party of the BJP. Pawar said it seems leaders of the BJP know in advance about ED’s actions and it looks as if the orders are coming directly from the BJP.

Pawar further added during the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh the ED was not misused but now the investigative agency is being misused to create fear among the opposition leaders. According to reports the ED has attached assets of a sugar mill owned by the company of NCP (SP) MLA Rohit Pawar, the grand nephew of Sharad Pawar.