Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee has made it official that Mahua Moitra is right here to remain. Brushing apart hypothesis that the controversial MP from Krishnanagar could be denied a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls subsequent yr, the chief minister of West Bengal sang Moitra’s reward at a celebration programme in Kolkata, Thursday.
This was a primary since Moitra acquired embroiled within the ‘cash-for-query’ allegations levelled towards her by BJP’s Nishikant Dubey.
Addressing MPs, MLAs, panchayat staff and TMC leaders of assorted wings, Mamata Banerjee mentioned, “Their (BJP leadership) plan is to expel Mahua. This will only make her more popular. For three months she will say what she was saying inside the Parliament to the media outside. How does it matter? Only those who are stupid can make such an attempt.”
However this isn’t the primary time Mamata Banerjee has put her weight behind Moitra. Final week, the get together appointed Moitra as president of its Krishnanagar district unit in Nadia. This got here towards the backdrop of a parliamentary panel probe towards her which concluded with the pinnacle of the Parliamentary Ethics Committee recommending her expulsion.
Moitra is one in every of TMC’s most vocal MPs within the Lok Sabha and lots of of her fiery, viral speeches have helped garner nationwide consideration for the TMC, in any other case restricted to West Bengal.
“Mamata Banerjee is a street fighter. She always pushes women within the party to greater heights. Be it her cabinet or ticket distribution, she prioritises women,” mentioned one TMC chief who didn’t wish to be named.
Apparently, Mamata’s assist for Moitra in entrance of cameras and her personal get together staff is available in the identical week because the state authorities cancelling its preliminary pact with the Adani Group for improvement of the Tajpur Port. On Tuesday, CM Mamata Banerjee introduced that the federal government will provoke a contemporary tender course of for the challenge.
In response to political analyst Udayan Bandopadhyay, Moitra’s fearless perspective is why she all the time has Mamata’s backing. “Mamata Banerjee is supporting Mahua Moitra since she is a fearless woman parliamentarian. Controversies are there but those do not surpass the errors of an authoritarian rule,” he instructed ThePrint.
“Mahua Moitra is a popular Trinamool MP, she is well established and the party wouldn’t want to lose her,” added a TMC parliamentarian who didn’t wish to be named.
Moitra, who started her political innings as a celebration spokesperson, shot to the limelight representing TMC on nationwide TV debates. She was additionally in a position to persuade Mamata Banerjee to present her a ticket in Nadia as a substitute of Murshidabad, which is the place the TMC chief needed to area her.
One other TMC chief who was a part of the programme Thursday claimed inner bickering throughout the get together in Nadia has been a trigger for fear.
However Mamata Banerjee has now delivered a transparent message to the cadres: her assist for Moitra is unwavering and the Krishnanagar MP is the get together’s level particular person in Nadia district.
A piece of the opposition leaders together with Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had questioned TMC’s silence on the ‘cash-for-query’ allegations towards Moitra.
Requested about Mamata Banerjee assertion that the BJP was making Moitra extra common, BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya declined to remark and as a substitute claimed that Banerjee broke her silence on the insistence of INDIA alliance associate CPI(M) leaders Sitaram Yechury and Md Salim.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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