Mamata changes tack for rebels

Hands them additional responsibilities at the core committee meeting

To tackle rebels within party ranks, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sought to hand over additional responsibilities to them at a party meeting here on Saturday.

The meeting assumed significance in the wake of a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Saradha scam, which laid bare some cracks within the party.

On Friday, Mukul Roy, the party’s all-India general-secretary, had been summoned by the investigative agency. What rattled the party leadership was Roy held four press conferences to convey he would cooperate with the CBI, a deviation from his party’s stand, which had labelled the probe a political conspiracy.

Before attending Saturday’s meeting, Roy, however, said, “Those were my personal views. The party might have a different stand. If the CBI summons me even 100 times, I will go.” Roy, who was expected to stay away from Saturday’s meeting, was accompanied by a large number of followers.

At the meeting, a belligerent Banerjee, who had earlier said those who wanted to leave the party were free to do so, changed tack. “The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is scaring Mukul. They are telling him ‘either you split the party or go to jail’,” she told party members. The BJP had told MP Shubhendu Adhikari that he should either join it or go to jail, she added.

“Don’t be afraid to go to jail. I am also ready to go to jail,” she said.

Detractors such as MP Dinesh Trivedi and MLA Sabyasachi Dutta have been given campaign responsibilities for the coming Bongaon Lok Sabha by elections on February 13. As civic polls will follow soon, it seems Banerjee doesn’t want to upset party members ahead of those.

Earlier, Trivedi was heard praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi publicly for his “good work”. He had also said though Banerjee had achieved a remarkable feat by ending 34 years of the rule of the Left in West Bengal, life didn’t end there. Dutta, too, had deviated from the party line when he said there was a reason why people were being summoned by the CBI. “It has to be understood that when there is smoke, there has to be fire,” he had said on a news channel.

Matang Singh arrested

Meanwhile, the CBI on Friday arrested former Congress minister Matang Singh in connection with the Saradha scam. Singh was arrested on charges of criminal conspiracy and misappropriation of funds, following an eight-hour-long interrogation session. Allegedly, Singh had met former Saradha group chief Sudipta Sen to sell a television channel, according to a purported letter written by Sen to the CBI in 2013.