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3 TMC leaders ask party to sack Partha Chatterjee after two raids by ED
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, who was the first to tweet his personal opinion on removing Partha Chatterjee, later deleted his post, saying Abhishek Banerjee has convened a meeting later in the eveniing to discuss the issue
Three leaders of Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Thursday asked the party to sack West Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and expel him from the TMC after two raids by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) led to the discovery of ₹50 crore in cash from two locations over the past week.
TMC state general secretary and party spokesman Kunal Ghosh tweeted his advice to the party, saying Chatterjee should be expelled from the party and removed from the ministry.
“Partha Chatterjee should be removed from ministry and all party-posts immediately. He should be expelled. If this statement considered wrong, party has every right to remove me from all posts. I shall continue as a soldier of @AITCofficial,” Kunal Ghosh said in a post on Twitter. He later deleted the post, saying TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had convened a meeting to discuss the issue. “So, as @AITCofficial has taken up the matter, I am deleting the personal one,” he said.
Ghosh initial call to remove Partha Chatterjee was a departure from the party stand articulated by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday when she again sought a time-bound probe into the allegations of a scam in the recruitment of school teachers and promised to take action once the case is proven legally.
Chatterjee and model Arpita Mukherjee were arrested by ED on July 23 in connection with a multi-crore recruitment scam in government schools in West Bengal. ED officials said they have seized ₹50 crore in cash from locations linked to the two ad 5kg gold, apart from documents relating to various properties.
Kunal Ghosh’s public advice to the party was soon echoed by two other leaders.
“My grandmother used to say, if pus gathers in an abscess, it should be removed. You will stay healthy and can sleep well. It is needless to withstand torture the whole body for one abscess,” said Debangshu Bhattacharya, general secretary of TMC’s youth wing and a state spokesperson in a post on Twitter.
Biswajit Deb, TMC legislator and spokesperson also backed Ghosh’s call.
“Ghosh is 100% right. Chatterjee should be removed immediately for the party’s interests. Why didn’t Chatterjee say for once that he is innocent? This one incident has tarnished the party’s image. A message should be sent out that the party won’t tolerate corruption,” said Biswajit Deb
Kunal Ghosh underlined that Chatterjee had never once told the media that he was innocent.
“He got ample scope to speak to media. He has said that he called up the chief minister after being arrested, He responded when media asked him whether he would resign, but he never said even once that he was innocent and was being framed. If he doesn’t say he is innocent, why should the party take his responsibility?” said Ghosh.
When Chatterjee was asked by the media on Wednesday if he intended to resign as minister, he said: “For what reason?”
The BJP, however, took a dig at the TMC, wondering why Ghosh didn’t discuss his advice within the party and instead chose social media to outline his stand.
“Ghosh is the party’s general secretary and spokesperson. He could have discussed this within the party. But instead he chose social media. It could be that he wants to keep his own image clean, or there is no democracy within the party or the party doesn’t take him seriously. It could be that the TMC is scared of Chatterjee and that’s why he is not being expelled as there could be long-term repercussions. People would have to unitedly fight against the TMC,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson.
