TMC calls BJP 'anti-Bengal', claims no party MP from the state attended CR Das tribute event

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Sagarika Ghose on Wednesday called the BJP "anti-Bengal" and alleged that no local MPs from the party came to the Central Hall of Parliament, where a ceremony was held to pay tribute to Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das on his birth anniversary. The TMC Rajya Sabha deputy leader called the party "Bangla birodhi" (anti-Bengal) on X. "Question to BJP desperate to win votes in Bengal: why were BJP's Bengal MPs absent at the floral tributes ceremony for Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das this morning in Parliament?" Ghose said. "Bangla birodhi BJP cynical scorn for Bengal again revealed. AITC will always honour and remember Bengal's greats," she said. In another post, Ghose hailed Das as "Bengal icon, brilliant lawyer and freedom struggle hero." The Lok Sabha Secretariat, in a statement, said floral tributes were paid to Das at his portrait in the Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan on Wednesday.

Several members of Parliament, former members, Secretary-General Lok Sabha Utpal Kumar Singh, and other senior officers of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Secretariat paid the freedom fighter their tributes, it said. A booklet containing the profile of Das, brought out in Hindi and English by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, was presented to the dignitaries who attended the function. A portrait of him was unveiled in the Central Hall on September 12, 1958, by the then President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad. Chittaranjan Das, popularly called Deshbandhu (friend of the country), was a Bengali freedom fighter, political activist, lawyer, and mentor of Subhas Chandra Bose. He was the founder-leader of the Swaraj Party in undivided Bengal during the British Colonial rule in India.