We will settle scores inch-by-inch when we return to power,” Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek, an MP, had warned in their election speeches.
Apart from Opposition workers who have been under attack from Trinamool workers a few politicians and bureaucrats on Wednesday got a taste of the Chief Minister’s “inch-by-inch” wrath.
Even before the new Trinamool Congress Government has been sworn-in for the second time an apparently remote-controlled administration has effected a host of ‘penal transfers’ in the bureaucracy. Not only this, stern messages were sent out for some senior TMC leaders like Dinesh Trivedi — who had dared to take a stand on the corruption issue and pre-poll attacks on the Opposition workers — when the Trinamool supremo on Wednesday met the whole lot of party MPs, MlAs and organisational portfolio holders. Inside sources said Dinesh Trivedi was asked by the TMC High Command not to come to Wednesday’s meeting adding, this was an indication of what was in store for the former Railway Minister. Banerjee had earlier warned that “those who do not stand by the party in distress would be dealt with sternly.”
Sources said the cold treatment to Trivedi was a warning to Sugato Bose, who had also cried out against corruption in the party. Bose a grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was left untouched.
Trivedi had earlier said that had he been the party chief he would have asked the leaders seen in the Narada video taking bribe to resign and join the mainstream only after getting their names cleared. He had also stood by the family of a CPI(M) voter after a three-year-old child was beaten up by the Trinamool goons in a midnight raid.
Inside sources said, “Trivedi could be asked to retrace his steps publicly or face drastic measures.” The exercise is seen as a timely step taken by Banerjee to scuttle rebellion when she is riding a popular wave wining 211 out of 294 seats.