In an apparently small but glaring incident that bear some faint indication of developing cracks in the relationship between Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, the Bengal Chief Minister has removed advocate Sanjoy Basu from the panel of her lawyers to defend a libel case filed against her by State Governor CV Ananda Bose. Now Mamata Banerjee's brief would be handled by senior Trinamool Congress lawyer and Serampore MP Kalyan Banerjee, sources said.
Bengal Governor Doctor CV Ananda Bose had filed a defamation suit against Mamata on June 28, a day after the latter claimed that women complained to her that they were afraid to visit Raj Bhavan because of the activities happening there. This in the aftermath of a woman employee working in the Raj Bhavan had brought some accusations against some top notch person in there.
Basu who is a close aide of Abhishek Banerjee and handles his legal brief had reportedly been removed from many other legal matter of the State Government early this year. This after reports did the rounds that a new political party had been formed in Bengal at his behest. Reports also said that "a close relative of the Chief Minister who was in touch with some BJP leaders was behind the new development."
The reports were further buttressed by the conspicuous absence of junior Banerjee - who is also the party general secretary - from a host of party programmes. However Abhishek raised the issue himself early this month in a party general meeting and confirmed his allegiance for the Chief Minister and her aunt saying he would continue to swear by the name of Mamata Banerjee. "People are questioning my loyalty to the TMC, but let me tell in front of you all that I will never cow down. I will never give into any pressure. Even if they cut my head the wind pipe will cry 'Mamata Banerjee zindabad'. This is because like everyone I am also a soldier of Mamata Banerjee," the TMC MP from Diamond Harbour said.
The political grapevine has it that the junior Banerjee who is under pressure from the intelligence agencies post breaking of a number of scams including the teachers' recruitment scam was trying to find an avenue in the BJP so as to rid himself of the charges.
A parallel group in the party says that the difference between the Chief Minister and her nephew is not related to the scams but to the ballooning ambition of Abhishek who wants to usurp power too soon a la Ajit Pawar.
On whether the removal of Basu would mean much to the BJP State party leader Sajal Ghosh said, his party was "only concerned about the ouster of Mamata Banerjee," adding however that,
"Kalyan Banerjee is a failure as a lawyer and his handling of the case will further make it bad" for the Chief Minister.