Undaunted even after being censored by his outfit for alleged anti-party activities an undaunted Barrackpore Trinamool Congress MP Dinesh Trivedi chose to stick to his stance of speaking against his party colleagues who were seen taking bribe in the Narada sting video.
Trivedi a former Railway Minister who had to lose his job for not adhering to his party chief Mamata Banerjee's populist policy after hiking the fare of local trains said his “conscience is clear” adding he felt indebted to his parents and teachers who taught him to fight against evil.
Trivedi had earlier said, "had I been the party chief," he would ask his tainted leaders to go off public life and prove them innocent before coming back to contest elections.
About a dozen Trinamool leaders including MPs and Ministers were seen accepting cash in lieu of future favour to a journalist who posed as a businessman in a sting operation.
Trivedi's statement was not well-received by his party while TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee ordered him to be censored after the elections. Accordingly Trivedi was not invited in the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary Party meeting on Tuesday and was censored by the party for "anti-party activities."
Insiders said Sougato Roy one of the Narada characters even alleged that Trivedi had told some Congress MPs that the Trinamool was losing in Bengal besides expressing his displeasure to outsiders over the way tickets were distributed during the Assembly elections in his own parliamentary constituency.
"He should not have acted this when the party was in trouble" Roy is known to have said. As senior leaders like Roy and Sudip Bandopadhyay advocated censoring him they were backed by another senior leader Mukul Roy, sources said. Trivedi on Wednesday said he did not regret his stance and stuck to it as whatever he had done was in the interest of the party.
Incidentally Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury had earlier said that honest and upright people like Trivedi were welcome in his party if they felt suffocated in the Trinamool Congress.