Hours after senior Trinamool Congress leaders projected jailed leader Madan Mitra as the party candidate for the coming Assembly elections, State Opposition decried the move saying that it amounted to morally supporting the chit fund business and that the ruling outfit had no intention to catch the culprits involved in the multi-crore ponzi scams and return the embezzled money of the poor.
“It is not our business to mind the internal affairs of other parties but in this case it once again proves that the Trinamool Congress does not make any distinction between the corrupt and the honest and it is in the interest of their top leadership to appease Madan Mitra so that he keeps his mouth shut about the Saradha and other chit fund scams,” said former CPI(M) MP Sujan Chakrabarty.
BJP MlA Samik Bhattacharya said such move only proved that the party stands firmly behind the perpetrators of the chit fund business. Congress’ Abdul Mannan said “the judiciary is definitely taking note of the proceedings” adding “it is a good advertisement for Mamata Banerjee’s brand of honesty and her allegiance to the Maa Maati Maanush, the slogan that brought her to power.”
The Trinamool earlier sent out a firm signal that the party stands firmly behind chit fund-tainted leader who is now in jail and whose bail has repeatedly been rejected by the Calcutta High Court with senior leader and MP Saugato Roy telling in a public meeting that the party had decided to once again give ticket to Mitra.
“The party decision is that Madan Mitra will be our candidate. In the next few days we will have to work so that he wins. Our collective aim is to make him win because candidates are inconsequential and it is the people which matters because they cast their vote in collective wisdom and the party workers take the message of the party to the people. We have to convince the people and make him win” Roy a very senior leader said in the presence of senior State Minister Jyoti Priya Mullick who is also the president of the party’s North 24 Praganas unit.
Mitra is to contest from Kamarhati seat in the northern fringes of Kolkata. His statement assumes significance because No Trinamool leader talks out of turn and without being asked to do so by party president and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mitra is currently the sitting MlA from Kamarhati.
“There is no dearth of thieves in the TMC. There are convicted wagon breakers still continuing as MlAs, there are chit fund and murder accused and those who have bombed policemen to death. In fact she is between devil and deep sea now. She has to offer him a ticket to shut his mouth. And if she does so she will earn the wrath of the depositors, “said Samik lahiri a former CPI(M) MP.
Even a TMC MlA and a Minister expressed surprise at the move. “We will have to do a lot of explanations. The party should not be seen as a sympathizer of the corrupt.”
Meanwhile, a day after Roy spoke Mitra’s son tended to make good display of “collective wisdom and effort” by distributing victuals and blankets from a programme aimed at the minority community —aneffort the experts said amounted to kicking off the election campaign literally.
Things were likely to be clearer on February 12 when the Chief Minister will convene the party’s extended general council meeting at Netaji Indoor Stadium.
On Roy’s statement inside sources said it was Banerjee’s ploy to test the water before formally giving him a nomination as “the numbers of people affected by chit fund scam is no less. It is about 20 lakh with each cheated person having the ability of influencing five people taking the number to at least one crore. And even if we discount the 5 lakh people whose money has been returned then also we will have to contend with at least 70 lakh voters. Everything will be clear within a fortnight.”