Kolkata, Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill alleged on Friday that the BJP and the Trinamool Congress are on a 'joint mission' to ruin West Bengal and the tug-of-war has dented, damaged and derailed the development of 'Shonar Bangla', besides comparing the BJP with the East India Company whose only goal is to loot Bengal.

Addressing a press conference at the party office in Kolkata, Shergill said, "BJP's '200 Par' (claim that BJP will win more than 200 seats in Bengal polls) means fuel price '200 Par' and 'Mahila pe Vaar' (attack on women), while the TMC stands for 'Total Mismanagement and Chaos'."

He said the people of West Bengal are in dismay as in the past five years, both the BJP-led Central government and the Trinamool-led state government have played football with the desires, aspirations and demands of the people of Bengal.

Instead of sharing the report card of development with the voters, both the BJP and the Trinamool have indulged in a tug-of-war of politics of religion and violence to divert the attention from the real issues impacting the daily lives of the 'Bengali Manush', Shergill said.

"As Lord Buddha said -- 'three things cannot be hidden - the sun, the moon and the truth'. Similarly, while both BJP and Trinamool are busy trying to win the elections by hook or crook, both the parties have forgotten that they cannot hide their past baggage of hollow promises, lies and misdeeds," Shergill said.

The Trinamool government, instead of focusing on serious governance, has only played with the economy, employment, education and law & order of Bengal, he added.

He alleged that West Bengal's average growth of gross state domestic product (GSDP), the most common measure of income at the state level, is around 5.5 per cent, lower than the national average of 7.1 per cent.

The state's current debt at Rs 4.5 lakh crore is one-third of the total size of its economy and more than double than what it was at the time of the previous government in 2011, Shergill said.

The Congress leader also alleged that unemployment rate in Bengal has increased from 9 per cent in January 2016 to 17.4 per cent in May 2020.

"Both Trinamool and BJP are stalwarts of rhetoric and deceit. Both are immense failures when it comes to delivering the needs of the people, and are intoxicated by arrogance.

"The two parties are on a joint mission to ruin West Bengal. The BJP-Trinamool tug-of-war has dented, damaged and derailed the development of 'Shonar Bangla'. It is time for the people of West Bengal to show them that they are not going to be privy to the divisive and hate politics of the BJP and Trinamool," Shergill said.