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TMC to meet President Kovind to seek removal of Solicitor General
On Friday, the TMC sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta’s removal.
A delegation of Trinamool Congress leaders will meet President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday seeking the removal of solicitor general (SG) Tushar Mehta, TMC MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said.
“It has been decided in the party that we would now directly approach the President and apprise him of the incident. The President has given his consent and we would meet him around 2:30 pm on Monday,” said Roy.
On Friday, the TMC sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking Mehta’s removal while alleging that the senior lawyer met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Suvendu Adhikari in violation of established norms.
Both Mehta and Adhikari have, however, denied that the meeting took place. Mehta said on Friday that Adhikari, the leader of Opposition in West Bengal, came to his residence-cum-office in Delhi at 3 pm on Thursday but left without meeting the SG, who was tied up in previous engagements, and expressed his inability to meet the Nandigram MLA.
“Narada accused enters home of SG (who is also Special PP, CBI in Narada case) in vehicle, is checked & waved inside by security guards & exits after 30 mins. They say nothing happened. Yeah, right,” Mahua Moitra, TMC MP, tweeted on Saturday.
Adhikari is accused in the 2016 Narada sting operation case, and Mehta - the Union government’s second-highest law officer - is representing the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Supreme Court and the Calcutta high court in the agency’s probe against senior TMC leaders in the case.
The TMC’s letter to PM Modi, signed by party MPs Derek O’Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Mahua Moitra, said that the alleged meeting between Adhikari and Mehta “reeks of impropriety”.
BJP’s West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh attacked the TMC saying that the BJP seeks the removal of chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
“The TMC is engaged in politics of removal. Earlier they wanted the Governor of West Bengal to be removed. Now, they want the SG to be removed. Mamata Banerjee has lost the elections (she was defeated from Nandigram by Adhikari, even though TMC won the polls) but has become the chief minister through the backdoor. We are seeking her removal,” said Ghosh.
