Kolkata: In a strong rebuttal to several Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, party chief Mamata Banerjee has warned against anti-party activities which according to her has cost the party 12 seats in the recently concluded assembly polls.
TMC has won 212-seats in the 294-seat West Bengal legislative assembly making it the single largest party in the history of the state to win such a majority.
“Anyone who indulges in anti-party activities will not be tolerated,” Banerjee said while speaking to her newly appointed legislators a day ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.
“The party could have won at least 12 more seats which was lost due to infighting which will not be tolerated,” she said.
Banerjee is particularly unhappy with eight of her former ministers losing the elections, specially Manish Gupta, who had performed extremely well as state power minister in her last term.
The electoral loss of several ministers has been blamed on infighting, where certain individuals wanted to undermine others for political gains.
An internal inquiry committee comprising of senior party leaders Mukul Roy, Subrata Bakshi and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee has been formed to look into the reasons for the losses especially in the districts of Malda, Nadia and Darjeeling where TMC has performed poorly. Insiders say that Banerjee also dismissed the idea that people who have become first-time legislators should not dream of becoming ministers and asked them to focus on their respective constituencies.
“Please focus on working with people irrespective of whether they have voted for us or not. All legislators should be available for the people. The focus should be on development of the people and the party not personal gains,” Banerjee reportedly said in a meeting.
She is also particularly unhappy with certain party leaders like parliamentarian Dinesh Trivedi, who had voiced their opinion in the midst of the elections on issues of corruption which Banerjee believes have hurt the party.
“Whoever it may be, if you indulge in anti-party activity you will not be spared,” Banerjee told her legislators hinting at Trivedi, who was the only parliamentarian who was not present within the party.
Trivedi though sighted parliamentary committee meetings for his inability to attend the party meet, insiders say he was not invited.
“He has been indulging into anti-party activities for long now. During last parliamentary elections he wanted to shift to BJP. He as railway minister also increased the railway fair without informing Mamata,” said a senior party leader.
