This story is from February 26, 2015

TMC targets key Mukul aide, lights rebellion fuse

Bitten by the Mukul bug, Trinamool leaders see a BJP hand in the rising dissent.
TMC targets key Mukul aide, lights rebellion fuse
KOLKATA: It was a bad day for the ruling Trinamool Congress on Wednesday with parliamentary minister Partha Chatterjee getting into a fire fighting mode to stem the voices of dissent and defiance from its own men in Birbhum, Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas. Rebel former minister Humayun Kabir held that Mamata Banerjee government may lose its majority before the next Assembly polls.
Bitten by the Mukul bug, Trinamool leaders see a BJP hand in the rising dissent.
Trinamool Suri MLA Swapan Kanti Ghosh took his defiance to where it hurts the party most. Ghosh staged a dharna right on the Assembly lobby, as the Opposition does, demanding a probe into the corruption of the Trinamool-run Suri Municipality before it goes to polls in April. To make matters worse, Ghosh didn’t withdraw his dharna even after his party senior and state urban development minister Firhad Hakim asked him to come to his chamber for talks. The party responded by suspending Ghosh. “Ghosh has been into such activities for quite some time. His purpose is to embarrass the party he belongs to. He has been doing this with a political motive,” Chatterjee said announcing Ghosh’s suspension.
Little did Chatterjee know what was in store in Murshidabad. Disgruntled Trinamool leader and former minister Humayun Kabir trained his guns against Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee taking Mukul Roy’s side. “Mamata Banerjee used to reach out to the oppressed. She stopped doing that after she became the chief minister. Since then Mukul Roy has been running the party. Now Mamata wants to make her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee) the next CM. This will not happen. As far as I see it, some major developments are likely to come up in March and April. Trinamool Congress has 191 MLAs now. The party will lose its simple majority if 50 MLAs switch loyalties bringing down the figure to less than 149, the required number. The CM has to resign then,” the disgruntled Trinamool leader said. “She wants to project Abhishek Banerjee as the king. But people will rebuff it,” he added.
While the party marks time to crack the whip on Humayun Kabir (he was showcaused the day before), the Mamata Banerjee government wasted no time in removing Trinamool MLA from Barrackpore Shilbhadra Dutta from the post of parliamentary secretary (horticulture department). The Nabanna decision was a stern signal to the Trinammol ranks against the rebel nucleus growing around Trinamool national secretary Mukul Roy in Delhi. Dutta has been staying away from the Assembly session. Instead he left for Delhi along with Mukul’s MLA son Subhrangshu to Delhi on Tuesday.
Dutta, now in Delhi with Roy, didn’t show any remorse in giving up his red-beacon fitted official car and a chamber in the state assembly and said the “punishment” was only because he is close to Roy. “The chief minister can only explain this?” he said. However, riling Dutta can have manifold implications for not only he is a key advisor to Roy but is a good organizer. Party leaders feel action against Dutta can spilt the faction ridden Trinamool’s North 24-Paragas unit to bleed the party. Dutta also made efforts to reach out to another rebel-in-the-ranks Siuri MLA Swapan Kanti Ghosh saying, “We are with them who fight against corruption.” Ghosh, however, wouldn’t spell out his political future. While he maintains it is Roy who had inducted him to Trinamool, he also claims that he has no contact with Roy since July 1, 2014.
The suspension order against the Suri MLA is of little consequence to Swapan Kanti Ghosh. With an apparent backing from the BJP, Ghosh will be calling on Union urban development minister Venkaiah Naidu sometime next week and submit papers of corruption. “I will go to the Calcutta high court if needed. I am not going to spare the corrupt partymen. I have been reporting this issue to my party and the government for the last two and a half years,” Ghosh said. It was only on Wednesday that state urban development minister Firhad Hakim announced that the government will look into the corruption complaint.
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