Didi’s paintbrush fetched party Rs 6.47 crore in two years

“If the Election Commission feels it necessary, it will ask for a breakup of the list. As of now, there has been no intimation to us,” said Amit Bhattacharya, officer on special duty at the office of the West Bengal chief electoral officer.

Girish N Pande, chief commissioner of income tax in Kolkata, said the EC would send the department the details after the elections. “The EC will send us these financial statements and accounts and if we find anything we need to probe, we will,” he said.

Modi questioned Sunday how one Mamata painting could fetch Rs 1.80 crore. The state leadership of the BJP and the Congress, too, have alleged chit fund companies were among the buyers of the paintings.

“The buyers are owners of chit fund companies and some unscrupulous industrialists who paid heavy amounts to the chief minister who became such a celebrated painter overnight. We demand that the list of buyers be put up on the public domain,” said Congress state president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

BJP state president Rahul Sinha said this is a route the CM has taken to legalise black money. “This is money collected from chit fund companies which the party is showing as sale of paintings. We want to know how the paintings were sold. Through auction or at random?” he said.

CPI(M) leader Md Selim said, “More than anything, they are painting black money into white.”

The statements, with covering letters of the party general secretary Mukul Roy along with the auditor’s report, show that in two years after the party came into power, sale of its annual magazine too shot up — from Rs 3,79,280 in 2010-11 to Rs 12,64,319 and Rs 10,70,230 in the subsequent two years.