2023 Bengal panchayat polls will be 'grand affair,' says jailed TMC leader Mondal

Arrested Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mondal on Thursday asserted that the panchayat election next year will be a "grand affair" and urged supporters to work hard to ensure the party's victory. Mondal made the remark before reporters while being brought to Kolkata from Asansol for production before the MP/MLA Court in Bidhannagar in connection with the 2010 Mangalkot blast, in the charge-sheet of which the TMC Birbhum district president's name features.

"The panchayat election will be a grand affair (byapok hobe). TMC supporters should work hard to ensure the party's victory," Mondal said before boarding a Kolkata-bound car from Asansol Correctional Home where he has been lodged in connection with an alleged cattle smuggling case.

Reacting to his statement, BJP leader Rahul Sinha said that though the "panchayat poll provides the TMC opportunity to mint money", the forthcoming election will have to be fought without Mondal.