The Trinamool Congress has strongly reacted to a comment from BJP MP Soumtra Khan who claimed that Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was closely watching the steady alienation of MLAs from the ruling outfit and could soon call Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for a floor test in the Assembly.
Senior Trinamool leader and MP Saugato Roy said the BJP leaders were behaving like naïve politicians who have no idea of the Constitution.
“Some BJP leaders have no idea of how the Constitution works ... The TMC has a support of 218 MLAs in a House of 294… so how can the Governor be expected to make such an unconstitutional move by calling for a floor test…” Roy said wondering “in the first place even if the Governor would like to do so how Soumitra Khan got the information of his likelihood of doing so? The people are watching all this and they will take the decision when time comes… Let them do it and face the consequence.”
Senior Minister Partho Chatterjee said that the TMC had an overwhelming majority and even if the Governor wanted a floor test there was no constitutional way that he could do it… “his hands are tied by the diktats of constitution.”
Another TMC leader and Minister JP Mullick said that by making comments on behalf of the Governor and on such a big constitutional issue “naive MPs like Soumitra Khan” were only exposing the Governor’s office. “It is for the Governor to take an action on him and not the Trinamool Congress Government,” he said wondering why the Governor who was known for making comments on every issue had not come out with a statement on Khan’s comment.
Taking a jibe at the TMC whose “organizational adhesive is giving way,” Khan said soon half of the TMC MLAs would leave that party and join the BJP. “At least 8 ministers are ready to quit the TMC immediately,” Khan, who is also the state president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), said.
‘The way the MLAs have been dissenting and leaving Trinamool, the governor may all of a sudden ask the CM to prove majority... There is a possibility,” Khan said.
Adhikari a formidable leader for his mass connect unlike most of his party colleagues has still not left the TMC but is almost on his way out sources close to him say. In fact Adhikari on Monday took out a huge apolitical procession with flags bearing Sanskrit language “OM” symbols.
Adhikari apart there are other MLAs like Mihir Goswami who on Satuday joined the BJP. MLAs from Coochbehar, Diamond Harbour and North 24 Parganaas too have unfurled their rebel flags and are reportedly in touch with the BJP leadership.
Supporting Khan, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said “December will see many things happening in the TMC… the party will become half-extinct and it will vanish in thin air after the elections.”
Saying that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee lacked the courage to expel Adhikari he said “if she does so the party will vanish here and now… so she is buying time.
Meanwhile in a separate development Ghosh on Monday slapped a libel notice on Chief Minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee for calling him a goonda.
The junior Banerjee had on Sunday publicly said that “Dilip Ghosh is a goonda, Akash Vijaybargiya the son of Kailash Vijaybargiya is a goonda, Amit Shah is an outsider, Vijaybargiya is an outsider to Bengal … I dare these leaders to take legal actions against me… I will prove my point in the court.”
