Rahul Gandhi lashes out at Trinamool Congress for not ushering change in West Bengal

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday lashed out at the Trinamool Congress-led government for disappointing the people of West Bengal in terms of not ushering development-related changes.

"We thought that in an alliance with the TMC, we had removed the red (Left/Communists) out of West Bengal, but nothing has changed. Mamata Banerjee talks about the poor, but whatever corruption that used to happen earlier, still persists. Twenty lakh people, who are weak and poor, had to face economic hardship because of the Saradha Chit Fund scam," he said at his rally in Ghatal. "In the school teacher recruitment scam, irregularities were found over inducting 35,000 government teachers," Gandhi added.

He blamed the Mamata Banerjee-led government for not utilising allocated central funds for schemes like MNREGA. "We have sent five times more funds than what the NDA had provided to the state, and Mamata Banerjee says we haven't given any money. In other parts of the country, people get work under MNREGA for 100 days, while in this state, people get it for just 35 days. We want to connect with the weaker sections of society, while the TMC government works for its party organisation. If you belong to the Congress Party, then you are beaten. Such incidents happened under the previous Left Front Government," Rahul said.

He said it was under UPA, that fifteen crore people were lifted out of poverty.