Tapas Paul''s death sets off political slugfest in Bengal

Actor-politician Tapas Paul's death has kicked up a political storm in West Bengal, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday blaming the Centre's "vendetta politics" for it and the BJP hitting back insisting "neglect and mistreatment" by the TMC caused his demise.

Paul, a two-term former TMC MP, died at the age of 61 in Mumbai on Tuesday after a heart attack.

The actor-turned-politician was an accused in the Rose Valley chit fund scam case and was in jail for over a year. He was the brand ambassador of the Rose Valley group.

Banerjee, while paying homage to Paul, alleged that another TMC leader Sultan Ahmed had also died of cardiac arrest as he was under stress after being named an accused in the Narada tapes scandal of 2016. Ahmed, a former Union minister, had died in 2017.

The wife of party MP Prasun Banerjee, too, died because of the Centre's "vengeful" politics, the TMC supremo claimed. Prasun Banerjee's name had also cropped up in the Narada tapes scandal ..