India, April 8 -- Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday accused the TMC Government in West Bengal of diverting central funds towards party activities, asserting that the State's education system has been "destroyed".

Pradhan was addressing the media at Kolkata's Kalighat temple, where he joined BJP's Rashbehari candidate Swapan Dasgupta to offer prayers.

"The Central Government extended funds for mid-day meals, books and dresses. All that money was spent on party activities. Education in Bengal has been destroyed," he claimed.

The Union Education Minister said Bengal's academic legacy, shaped by luminaries like Swami Vivekananda and Rabindranath Tagore, had been "ruined" over 45 years of successive "misrule", comprising three de...