Mamata Banerjee says she will resign if she rings home minister Amit Shah after losing National’s status at Trinamool Congress
Post Date – 09:00 PM, Wednesday – 4/19/23
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Calcutta: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday she will resign if it is proven she called Union Home Minister Amit Shah after losing her National Party status at the Trinamool Congress.
Banerjee told reporters at the West Bengal state secretariat that the name of her party would remain the All India Trinamool Congress.
“If it turns out that I have summoned Amit Shah over the TMC’s National Party status, I will resign,” she said, dismissing claims by Bangladeshi opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari that she had dialed the Talk on the phone.
Adhikari claimed on Tuesday that after the Election Commission revoked TMC’s National Party status, Banerjee had called Shah to ask him to annul the decision.
Banerjee, who is also the top leader of the TMC, said: “It is the norm to review the Nationals status of all parties after 10 years. That means the next review should be in 2026…but they did it in 2019.”
“The name of my party will remain ‘All India Trinamool Congress’. If the BJP has any problems, they can contact the Election Commission and we will contact the common people,” she raged.
The ECI last week revoked the national party status of the TMC, the National Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
In response to Adhikari’s claims, the TMC also said on Tuesday that there was not even a grain of truth in them.
“Suvendu Adhikari is a habitual liar. We have seen how he had the audacity to lie about some political developments earlier. Having or not having a National Party status is nominal and it does not affect the TMC developments,” party spokesman Kunal Ghosh has said.
Taking on the BJP, Banerjee claimed it could not gain more than 200 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The chief minister said the state executive would investigate a disappearance complaint filed by veteran politician Mukul Roy’s son, Subhrangshu, about his father.
Roy, whose family say he suffers from dementia and Parkinson’s disease, popped up in Delhi after a missing persons complaint was lodged, claiming he was a “BJP MP and MLA” and wanted to meet Amit Shah.
“Mukul Roy is an MLA in BJP, if he wants to go to Delhi, that’s his business,” Banerjee said.
Roy, who won the 2021 West Bengal assembly election on BJP votes after defecting from the TMC, has since returned to the party he helped found, complaining about abuse by the saffron leadership.
