Fight it legally not on streets: Former PM Deve Gowda to Mamata on TMC MP's arrest

BENGALURU: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda today suggested that TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee should take legal recourse over the arrest of her party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay by the CBI which smacks of "political vindictiveness' by the Centre.

"... I don't know some of these things (arrest of Bandyopadhyay) gives room for people to think that the action taken by the central government is political vindictiveness," he told PTI after the Janata Dal (Secular) meeting here.

"My only appeal to Mamata Banerjee is that things cannot be fought on the streets. Legally, she should fight. That is all my humble appeal is," he added.


Gowda said he was not holding any brief for Banerjee, but the country knows she is not a corrupt, but poor politician.

Bandyopadhyay, TMC leader in Lok Sabha, was yesterday arrested by CBI in the Rose Valley chit fund scam, provoking a violent attack by his supporters on BJP's state headquarters here which left several people injured and set off a fresh bout of recrimination between the two parties.

Gowda alleged that were some ommissions and commissions in the scam, but Bandyopadhyay's arrest leads to certain confrontation.

On the family feud in ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, Gowda expressed pain and hoped for a reconciliation between Mulayam Singh Yadav and his chief minister son Akhilesh Yadav in a day or two.

"Will there be any reconciliation between father and son? Let us wait and watch. However, it is a very painful episode for me as Samajwadi Party has grown strongly in Uttar Pradesh under the leadership of Mulayam Singh," he said.

Gowda also feigned ignorance about the cause of the family spat. "They may reconcile within a day or two, and also nobody can speak anything about the boy (Akhilesh) who has a face value. I don't know how the trouble started. They may reconcile within a day or two," he added.

Yesterday, the split in the SP had been formalised, with the Akhilesh Yadav camp approaching the Election Commission to assert that the party was "actually" headed by the Chief Minister now and not its founder Mulayam Singh, who had knocked at the doors of the poll panel on January 2 to lay claim on the 'cycle' symbol.