West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday called for electoral reforms and cash-free polls. She demanded that the black money stashed abroad to be brought back for state funding of elections.

She alleged that voters in some of the North-Eastern states are bought with money.

“I am sorry to say but in some of the north-eastern states voters are bought with money. There is rampant use of black money and this black money should be brought back to fund elections,” she said.

Banerjee was speaking at a seminar organised on the platinum jubilee celebrations of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Taking Tamil Nadu as a case in point, she maintained that the situation there was alarming since in Tamil Nadu candidates spent over Rs 20 crore in election campaigns.

“I can assure you that in this state (West Bengal) the least amount of money is involved during the elections,” she said.

Banerjee said that the country’s fabric has been weakened by corruption thereby leading to rampant lawlessness. She further added that good people were apprehensive of joining politics because of such corruption by a select few.

She maintained that democracy has been pushed to the background and it was unacceptable. “Where has democracy been pushed to? In the name of democracy, what is going on is shocking,” Banerjee maintained.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition, Surjya Kanta Mishra maintained that there was no use of the government blaming the judiciary and the judiciary coming down on the government over corruption.

“Instead of blaming each other, things should be looked at in a holistic manner,” he said.

abhishek.l@thehindu.co.in

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