1 hour ago
8
ARTICLE AD BOX
As one more Rajya Sabha MP of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) resigned Thursday, troubles mounted for party chairperson Mamata Banerjee as two of her colleagues still considered part of her faction gave her an ultimatum, saying she must choose between her nephew and TMC’s Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee and those who were standing by her. Banerjee, one of the MPs said, must take note of the “grievances” against Abhishek and that he was with her “as of now”.
This came on a day a single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court granted Abhishek interim protection from any coercive action by the CID for three weeks in a case of alleged signature forgery, while Rajya Sabha MP Prakash Chik Baraik, known to be close to the TMC national general secretary, resigned from the Upper House of Parliament. He is the third TMC Rajya Sabha MP to resign this week.
Sreerampur MP Kalyan Banerjee — whom Mamata reinstated as the party’s Lok Sabha chief whip last month — targeted Abhishek after he and his son were replaced as the TMC number two’s advocates in the CID case. Mamata, he said, “has to decide whether she will stay with Abhishek or us who are unhappy with him”. Dum Dum MP Sougata Roy, meanwhile, told The Indian Express in an interview that one of the grievances against the TMC “relates to the high-handedness of Abhishek Banerjee” and the party chief must tackle that.
“I had said, ‘Do not treat me like a dustbin’; inform me whether I will appear in the case or not. Later, they informed me that Ayan Bhattacharya will fight the case. So, I left. I have 45 years of practice,” Kalyan told reporters.
Continuing his criticism of Abhishek, the veteran leader said, “It is because of him that we have to hear chor chor (‘thief thief’) and our life is under threat. Even today, in the party’s bad days, I am beside Didi … Mamata Banerjee has to decide whether she will stay with Abhishek or us who are unhappy with him.”
Kalyan Banerjee’s son Sirsanya Bandopadhyay, also an advocate, said they had decided to withdraw their names from the petition by Abhishek. “From May 5, we have been appearing in court in party matters. Around 1 am (on Thursday), we were informed that someone else will appear. So we made a conscious decision to avoid humiliation. Abhishek Banerjee did not call; his lawyer informed us. I am definitely hurt. But I am still part of the TMC. The TMC is not Abhishek Banerjee. The TMC is Mamata Banerjee and its workers,” Sirsanya, who contested the recent Assembly elections from Uttarpara in Hooghly district, told The Indian Express.
Sougata Roy, who has claimed that the BJP reached out to him to join the bloc of TMC’s rebel parliamentarians, told Express that Mamata must listen to the “grievances of people who are still with the party” and heed to the complaints against her nephew.
Story continues below this ad
Sougata Roy
“She must talk to people. If there are grievances against Abhishek Banerjee, she must tackle those also. Secondly, she must also chart out a plan of movement. She is known for her feisty persona, so she must fight this because the BJP at the lowest level is torturing Trinamool people, beating them up, vandalising party offices, and putting TMC people in jail. She must fight against it,” he said.
Asked what these grievances were, he said, “One grievance relates to the high-handedness of Abhishek Banerjee. The other is that there is nobody to listen to the grievances within the party.”
Roy said “BJP bigwigs” had spoken to him and invited him to join the rebel group. Asked if he was still with Mamata Banerjee, the MP said, “As of now.”
At present, Mamata Banerjee is fighting a battle on two fronts: Kolkata and Delhi. First, on June 3, 58 of the party’s 80 MLAs rebelled against her choice of Legislature Party leadership and backed MLA Ritabrata Banerjee as its leader. Then, before she could contain the crisis, a group of parliamentarians raised the banner of revolt on June 8, with Barasat MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claiming that 20 of the party’s 28 Lok Sabha MPs want to be recognised as a separate bloc and align with the BJP-led NDA. Three Rajya Sabha MPs have also resigned — Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, Sushmita Dev, and now Baraik — bringing the party’s tally in the Upper House of Parliament to 10.
English (US) ·