Trinamool-BJP battle reaches ‘Parl Questions’, Shatabdi Roy gets ED summons
New Delhi, : The bitterness between Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and the BJP has assumed higher political dimension and is gradually getting more bitter.
On the face value, woes are multiplying for the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit as the multi-crore Saradha Chit Fund scam, which came into limelight in 2013, has resurfaced and the regional party is also protesting the manner ‘questions’ are being asked in the ongoing Parliament session in both the Houses.
Sources further said the central government run NTPC is deliberately delaying Katwa-based 1600 Mega Watt Super Thermal Power Station project and there is no environment clearance yet.
A Trinamool delegation led by Derek O’ Brien and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy also met Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, sources said.
The sitting MP and actress-turned-politician Shatabdi Roy has got summons from the Enforcement Directorate on the scam – the probe earlier had led to arrest of top Trinamool Congress leaders.
“Sir, why is the Government of West Bengal being targeted?,” Trinamool floor leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay has said in Lok Sabha on Monday registering strong protest against what he said ten advisories sent to the Mamata Banerjee government “in last 10 days”.
“It is butchering the parliamentary democratic process,” alleged Mr Bandyopadhyay, who was also arrested in connection with the scam.
Sharing similar sentiment with him party’s Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’ Brien is also learnt to have raised the matter with the Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, chairman of the Upper House of Parliament.
Trinamool sources said four questions were allowed in the Rajya Sabha related to political violence in West Bengal on July 10.
Mr Bandyopadhyay also said: “….some questions in Parliament are normally not allowed to be raised in the floor of the House (repeatedly), but such questions are being allowed to be raised with mild variation again and again.”
“…..questions should not be allowed to be repeated again and again in this manner,” he has further said making a plea before the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.
However, BJP leaders from the state and floor managers in Delhi deny any ill motive.
“In Rajya Sabha some questions were asked by AAP and Samajwadi Party members, they are not our allies,” one BJP leader said.
Among the state leaders, Locket Chatterjee, a Lok Sabha MP, told UNI: “Trinamool is nervous and hence raising all these. Many leaders are keen to join BJP across India including in West Bengal”.
The reference is to another BJP leader Mukul Roy claiming in last few days that as many as 107 legislators in West Bengal including from Congress and Trinamool Congress would be crossing over to the saffron party soon.
Ms Chatterjee, however, did not want to be drawn into the number guess and merely said, “as I am in Delhi, I would not know such details”.
In fact, on Monday also on the floor of Lok Sabha, BJP leaders Dilip Ghosh (Bengal BJP chief) and Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur made a veiled attack on the Mamata Banerjee regime vis-a-vis non utilisation of MLAs’ Funds in the state.
West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh alleged in the House during Question Hour that as “three years of experience” as a state legislator, he knew that categorically the state government officials would tell the MLAs that funds will not be provided or spent.
Responding to him, MoS Finance Mr Thakur said: “He (Dilip Ghosh) is the not the first MLA who has spoken about non utilisation of funds in Bengal…..Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury (of Congress) also has raised these”.
Meanwhile, Saradha Chit Fund scam that had left thousands of small investors in agony has again started haunting Trinamool Congress.
Among with Birbhum MP Shatabdi Roy, five others have been summoned to appear by ED in July.
A former football Club official, two businessmen and suspended Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh too have been asked to cooperate in investigation, sources said.
The BJP leaders also insist that with the latest developments vis-a-vis ED probe, besides the law and order situation in West Bengal, the Saradha Chit Fund scandal too will be raised in the going session of Parliament which still has two weeks to go.
The rivalry between Trinamool and BJP have intensified in recent months in the run up to the Lok Sabha polls and thereafter as the saffron managed to win as many as 18 seats from the state wresting several constituencies from Ms Banerjee’s party.
UNI.