Fresh from her party’s unimpressive show in the recently concluded parliamentary elections and tormented by regular exodus of party men, including MLAs and municipal councilors, to the BJP Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the spate of emigration was not on account of any ideological transformation but “greed for cash.”
Addressing a meeting of party corporators at the Netaji Indoor Stadium Banerjee said “only those people who are being investigated for corruption are quitting the party. But they do not know that they will still be investigated for all their past corrupt activities.”
Though upset over a large number of TMC councilors and an MLA on Tuesday joining the BJP in Delhi she said, “I am not worried about 15-20 councilors leaving us for cash because TMC is not a weak party. Even the MLAs are also free to quit the party if they want because for every such leader quitting the party I will produce 500 others. In fact I have my names ready for them.”
The TMC supremo said, “we don’t want thieves in our party. I call upon these thieves who are more eager to get cut money out of every project to quit the party immediately so that I can fill their places with honest and hardworking workers,” adding she “won’t allow the party leaders to extract cut money even from small schemes worth even Rs 2,000.”
Claiming that she had reports of party men were extorting 10 per cent cut money for a grant of even Rs 2,000, she said “TMC is not a party of thieves and we shall not allow you to cheat the common people. For that if you want to quit the party and join the BJP you are free to do so. I ask you to go now.”
However, she reminded that “no one will be allowed to come back to the party afterwards. None will be allowed to return and rejoin the party by holding some big leaders feet,” she said directing senior party leaders Subroto Bakshi and Firhad Hakim to evolve strict conditions for returning to the TMC after one had left it.
The massive exodus from TMC to the BJP started soon after the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections where the TMC won 22 a deficit of 12 seats from its 2014 tally where as the BJP got 18 seats 16 more than what it got five years ago.
Already four TMC MLAs have left the TMC to join the BJP whereas the Bengal ruling outfit has lost at least five municipalities to a surging BJP in the wake of councilors joining that party in hordes.