Day after war of words between TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari over the issue of corruption, the Bengal's ruling party on Thursday challenged the BJP leader for an open debate with Banerjee on the issue.

On Wednesday, both Banerjee and Adhikari had engaged in a war of words on X, formerly Twitter, on the issue of corruption.

Banerjee had challenged Adhikari for a one-on-one debate on a news channel, a dare dubbed "diversionary tactics" by the BJP.

Several Trinamul leaders on Thursday slammed Adhikari for his alleged involvement in various corruption scams and switching over to BJP to evade action by central agencies.

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh questioned why central agencies don't dare to question Adhikari in corruption cases such as the Saradha and Narada scams.

"He keeps targeting Abhishek Banerjee and tweeting against him. What is the harm in accepting the invitation for a face-to-face debate with Abhishek Banerjee? TV channels should telecast it, and the people of Bengal will get to know. Why should the debate be limited to social media? What is the fear? He is only giving excuses to run away from a debate," said Ghosh.

The TMC leaders also slammed the Bengal BJP leader for engaging in vendetta politics and defaming the party's national general secretary on Wednesday, a day when India’s scientists at ISRO made history.

"When the entire nation was busy celebrating the success of our scientists, Adhikari was busy in political mudslinging. This only reflects the BJP's and its leaders' mindset," TMC Rajya Sabha MP Santanu Sen said.

Reacting to TMC's challenge, Adhikari said the TMC was trying to divert attention from the main issue.

"TMC is a party which is neck-deep in corruption. They are now trying new tricks every day to divert attention. This only reflects that the TMC is trying to run away from theatrics," he said.

The CBI and ED probes into the School Service Commission, cattle smuggling and coal pilferage scam kept the TMC leadership busy with battles being fought both inside courtrooms and also on the streets.

The party received a major jolt last year when its secretary-general and industry minister, Partha Chatterjee, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for his alleged involvement in the SSC scam after the recovery of huge cash from the residence of one of his close aides.

The party received another jolt when the CBI arrested its Birbhum district president, Anubarata Mondal, in the cattle smuggling case. However, unlike Chatterjee's case, the party stood by Mondal and dubbed his arrest as a conspiracy.

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