‘Stopped Me From Working’: Ex-Minister Manoj Tiwary Attacks Mamata Banerjee After TMC Defeat

Former TMC leader Manoj Tiwary accuses Mamata Banerjee of blocking him from working when he was West Bengal’s sports minister.

Former West Bengal Sports Minister Manoj Tiwary

Days after TMC suffered a massive blow in the West Bengal Assembly elections, former state sports minister Manoj Tiwary on Wednesday revealed that former minister Arup Biswas did not allow him to work freely.

Tiwary, in his video message, gave details of his days as sports minister when he was allowed to only “eat biscuits and tea”.

“Arup Biswas (TMC leader and former minister) prevented me from working. I come from the sports world and wanted to do a lot for sports. In the sports department, I had nothing to do except eat tea and biscuits. I wasn’t invited to any events. I was even on the field during the Durand Cup, but I wasn’t invited because Arup Biswas couldn’t tolerate my image,” he said.

Recalling the incident when football star Lionel Messi had to leave the event due to chaos, he said: ” I wasn’t present at Messi’s event because of the repeated insults. I felt something serious was about to happen. You must have seen that all the sports lovers in the state were embarrassed by Arup Biswas. Messi left the event within 5-10 minutes, just because of Arup Biswas. You can imagine what I’ve faced in the Sports Department over the past five years… I want to say that whatever God does, he does for good.”

While lauding BJP’s win in the Bengal elections, Tiwary said: “This narrow-minded government was removed. They worked for themselves, not for the public. There was a lot to be done for Shivpur, which I tried to explain repeatedly, even raising my voice in cabinet meetings.”

He also attacked then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said: “One day, when I raised this issue with the Chief Minister, she said to my face, “Don’t I have anything else to do?” She didn’t even give me 20 seconds to explain what I wanted to say. This government was based on false promises. I realised that very day that this government wouldn’t last long.”

Responding to the remarks, senior adviser to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Kanchan Gupta accused the TMC workers of “jumping a sinking ship”.

“Flea-bitten mangy rats jumping a sinking ship. Why even bother with their turncoatery? Don’t deprive them of the contempt they deserve. A plague on them,” he said in a post on X.

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