TMC MP Somen Mitra shares dais with state Congress chief again

Dissident Trinamool Congress MP Somen Mitra today once again shared dais with state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharjee, fuelling speculations of switching over to the Congress before the Lok Sabha polls.
Mitra, a former state Congress president, was spotted with Bhattacharjee and other Congress leaders at several Durga Puja inauguration functions today. His appearance with Congress leaders comes in the backdrop of TMC's diktat to all its leaders to refrain from sharing dais with Congress leaders.
In one such Durga Puja inauguration in central Kolkata, Mitra's wife Shikha, a suspended MLA of the TMC, was also present.
"We share an emotional bond with Congress party. You can't express that bond in words. When my husband (Somen Mitra) suffered a heart attack, Congress president Sonia Gandhi personally called me up to assure me that she is with us, if we needed any help. How can we forget that gesture? It is a personal and emotional bond," Sikha Mitra told PTI when asked about their sharing dais with Congress leaders.

Shikha was suspended from the TMC in December last for criticising the party at a function at the state Congress office on July 1 where she had gone to attend a programme on the occasion of the birthday of former chief minister B C Ray.
Her husband Somen Mitra was seen with Congress leaders several times recently.

On the speculations of their switching over to the Congress, she said, "This is Puja programme. We would talk about this later."
TMC's dissident Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, whose name has cropped up in the Saradha chit fund scam, was suspended last month for making anti-party statements.

Ghosh, considered to be close to Somen Mitra, had made those statements at a programme, where Mitra along with two other party MPs were present.
Those two MPs, actors Tapas Paul and Shatabdi Roy, who had also hit out at the leadership, however, were spared.