Miffed over Congress leader and PAC chairman Manas Bhuniya’s defiant stand towards the State leadership, party MLA’s on Friday decided to appeal for his suspension and disciplinary action against him to the AICC.
State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury accused Mr Bhuniya of working on the behalf of the TMC and said the party would not tolerate such indiscipline.
“He is working on behalf of the Trinamool Congress as an agent of TMC in lieu of ‘supari’. We will not tolerate indiscipline. Nobody should take Congress for granted,” Mr Chowdhury said.
“Today in the meeting of Congress MLAs, a unanimous decision was taken to send a proposal to the AICC requesting them to take disciplinary action and suspend Manas Bhuniya as he has indulged in anti-party activities, disrespecting the State leadership and the decisions taken by the party,” Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Abdul Mannan told PTI.
“The MLAs had appealed to him to resign from the post of PAC chairman but he didn’t. He was even show-caused. He has crossed his limits,” the senior Congress leader said.
Mannan said it was also decided that Mr Bhuniya would be boycotted by the party MLAs.
Reacting to the decision, Mr Bhuniya said both Mannan and Chowdhury were deliberately insulting him.
“They are deliberately insulting me. I haven’t received any letter of suspension. Let me get it first, then I will decide my future course of action,” Mr Bhuniya said.
He had boycotted today’s Congress Legislature Party meeting.
The development came a day after Mr Bhuniya’s younger brother and West Midnapore district Congress president Bikas and several Congress workers joined the TMC.
Manas Bhuniya had been show caused by the Congress for refusing to step down from the post of the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee despite repeated requests by party leaders.
Thirty-nine party MLAs had jointly appealed Mr Bhuniya to resign from that post.
The Congress wanted to give the PAC chairman’s post to the CPI(M), with which it had jointly contested the West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year.
