Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 1: As the West Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari expanded his cabinet by introducing 35 new ministers on Monday, the cracks within the rival Trinamool Congress (TMC) seems to have come out in the open as the former chief minister Mamata Banerjee is struggling to keep her flock together after the devastating election results.
Following an explosive claim by Mr Adhikari that at least two newly-elected TMC MLAs have complained to him that their signatures have been forged by the party leadership in the TMC letter to the Speaker of the State Assembly naming Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the leader of opposition in the assembly, the two MLAs Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha, were expelled by the Trinamool from the party citing alleged anti-party activities.
“Trinamool’s corruption did not just target the people of Bengal but also its own MLAs. Trinamool stole its own MLAs’ signatures. The complaint was made by two Trinamool MLAs, Ritabrata Banerjee and Sandipan Saha. We had no role in this,” Adhikari told reporters on Monday. The West Bengal CID is probing the signature forgery charges. Several Trinamool leaders have been served notices in the case. The CID had even summoned senior Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee for questioning.
The two expelled MLAs were also among those who had on Sunday refused to attend a meeting of the legislature party convened by the party chief Mamata Banerjee citing absence of proper procedure in convening the meeting.
Questioning the TMC leadership for calling the meeting without following proper procedures, Saha, who is a legislator from the Entally constituency in Kolkata city, said a resolution to elect TMC’s leader, deputy leader, and chief whip in the West Bengal Assembly was submitted without following the procedures. He further said there was no point in attending Sunday’s meeting as no procedure was followed.
In a statement, the TMC said Saha and Banerjee failed to attend Sunday’s meeting called at party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s Kalighat residence in Kolkata, adding that it has been observed the two leaders made statements that were “prejudicial to the interests” of the Trinamool.
“After due consideration of the matter, the competent authority of AITC has decided to expel you from the (primary) membership of the Party with immediate effect,” the TMC’s statement read. “Consequently, you shall cease to hold any position, responsibility, or privilege associated with the Party from the date of issuance of this notice.”
Both Sandipan and Ritabrata were among the 60 MLAs who failed to attend the Sunday’s meeting. Earlier in the day, Saha defended his skipping Sunday’s meeting and said the meeting at Mamata’s residence was called without following the appropriate procedures. He also questioned TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee over ‘fake signature’ probe.
“A meeting has been held before. It included a resolution on who would be the party leader, deputy leader, and chief whip. Now, despite being in power for 15 years, this resolution was submitted to the Assembly without following the procedures. Then, it was scrutinised because the process wasn’t followed as per protocol. Now, the subjudice has been passed. Now, another meeting has been called. Was this meeting called after reviewing the procedures?” Sandipan asked.
On Sunday, Ms Banerjee had to postpone the scheduled meeting as only 20 out of the 80 MLAs elected to the state Assembly on the TMC ticket turned up to attend it. The party clarified that the MLAs failed to attend the meeting because of the attack on the TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee in Sonarpur last week. Later, Mamata met those who visited her residence and held informal talks.
Saha sternly questioned the leadership of Abhishek Banerjee over alleged forgery of MLAs’ signatures, saying the Diamond Harbour MP failed to fulfil his responsibility. He stated that the list had many mistakes and Abhishek was responsible for this. “Submitting the signatures of those who weren’t there, this is a huge blunder somewhere. Abhishek Banerjee’s name is coming up because he signed the list of MLAs as the General Secretary,” he added.
Abhishek’s role in the alleged fake signature case has been under scrutiny. The case is related to a TMC letter submitted to the Assembly Secretariat last month. The letter had signatures of around 70 newly elected party MLAs, who offered their support to Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as the Leader of Opposition.
Last week, he was also served a notice by the West Bengal CID, asking him to appear at its Bhabani Bhavan headquarters before it in connection with the probe. To this, Abhishek said he will respond only after consulting his lawyers. “I will surely cooperate with the probe in whatever manner possible,” he told reporters.
Ritabrata, a former Rajya Sabha MP who joined TMC in 2017 after switching from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was elected to the West Bengal Assembly from the Uluberia Purba constituency. He had defeated BJP rival Rudra Prasad Banerjee by a margin of over 11,800 votes. Sandipan, son of former TMC MLA Swarna Kamal Saha, had defeated BJP’s Priyanka Tibrewal by more than 34,000 votes in the recently held assembly polls in the state.
Ms Mamata Banerjee hit back at the BJP alleging that her MLAs were being threatened against attending her meeting. “Four of my elected MLAs complained to me how they were threatened by the cops over the phone before they came for the meeting,” she said.
Meanwhile, in the Lok Bhavan, the governor RN Ravi administered the oath to 35 MLAs as Ministers in the State’s first BJP-helmed cabinet, taking the total strength of the Adhikari Council of Ministers to 41. While 13 MLAs were sworn-in as Cabinet Ministers, three were administered oath as Ministers of State (Independent Charge), and 19 others were inducted as Ministers of State.
Along with Mr Adhikari, BJP legislators Dilip Ghosh, Agnimitra Paul, Nisith Pramanik, Ashok Kirtania, and Kshudiram Tudu had taken oath as Ministers on May 9. The current strength of ministers at 41 is three short of the maximum count that his government can have in the 294-member assembly.