Mamata Banerjee under pressure to act against tainted MPs

KOLKATA: Congress high command’s act of removing two key Union ministers Pawan Bansal and Ashwani Kumar from the Union government on corruption charges has put pressure on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee now busy with her campaign for the June 2 byelections to the Howrah Lok Sabha constituency.


Bengal Congress leaders want Mamata to take similar action against two Trinamool Congress MPs for their alleged role in Saradha scam.

“If our party can take action against two of our ministers for their alleged involvement in corrupt practices, what compels Mamata Banerjee to protect her MPs reportedly involved in the multi-crore Saradha scam. What is the mystery behind the Trinamool chief ’s act of protecting her MPs despite their relations with the shady company?,” Bengal Congress president Pradip Bhattacharjee asked on Monday.

“Kunal Ghosh and Srinjoy Basu are reportedly involved with the multicrore Saradha scam. The police have already interrogated Ghosh,” Bhattacharjee said, wondering why was the CM patronising her MPs?” he asked. The Congress candidate for Howrah by-elections, Sanatan Mukherjee has been questioning Mamata’s reluctance to punish the MPs.

The CPM too is playing up the issue during the party campaign for its candidate Sridip Bhattacharjee. “Our party has expelled one of our leaders Ganesh De who was the personal assistant of the former finance minister Asim Dasgupta. De was interrogated by the police for his alleged nexus with the Saradha group chief Sudipta Sen who is still under police custody. But Mamata has not taken any action against Kunal Ghosh who also faced a police interrogation,” a senior CPIM leader told an election rally in Howrah. Interestingly, Mamata’s campaign managers for the by-election are silent on this issue.

“The chief minister will be busy touring Darjeeling from Tuesday. She will be back in Kolkata on Friday and will hold a function to celebrate completion of her two years in government on May 20. The chief minister will then give a befitting reply to the joint campaigns of CPM and Congress on involvement of our party leaders in the Saradha scam,” a senior Trinamool Congress leader and astate minister from the Howrah district told ET.