Addressing a public meeting at Kulti in West Burdwan district, Banerjee claimed that the entire exercise was planned to malign the image of the West Bengal government.

“Even if a chocolate bomb explodes in Bengal, CBI, NIA, NSG are sent here…as if there is a war going on here. This is a one-sided approach as the state police were not informed. Nobody knows where it was recovered from – maybe it was brought from their own car and presented as recovered items. There is no evidence to show it was found here,” said Banerjee.

Five CBI teams conducted searches at various places in Sandeshkhali on Friday along with central forces. The raids came at a time when the second phase of the Lok Sabha elections was underway in West Bengal.

The cache included foreign-made revolvers, Indian revolvers, foreign-made pistols and ammunition.

“Even today, I heard there was an incident near Sandeshkhali. A BJP leader had stored bombs in his house. They think that they can win the election by cancelling jobs and exploding bombs. We want ‘Roti, Kapda, Makaan’ and jobs for the people, not their lofty speeches,” the TMC supremo said.

The Opposition, meanwhile, slammed the TMC government for failing to maintain law and order in Bengal.

BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said, “We are surprised to see that to stop the CBI probe in Sandeshkhali, the Trinamool Congress is moving the Supreme Court and the Election Commission. Instead of taking responsibility for the complete deterioration of law and order in the state, the Mamata Banerjee government is blaming the agency for the discovery.”

Senior CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty also criticised the TMC government over the development. “It is being said that some of the arms recovered were brought from foreign countries. Locals are saying that if the raids were conducted earlier then more arms would have been recovered. Bengal has become an arms factory under the TMC government,” said Chakraborty.