Rajib Banerjee, Rabindranath Ghosh, Gautam Deb, and Chandranath Sinha were the four ministers missing in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
Shortly after the TMC leader and key West Bengal Minister Suvendu Adhikari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), four ministers of the Mamata Banerjee government were reportedly “missing” during a cabinet meeting in Kolkata on Tuesday. Their absence made way for speculations on whether more resignations in the TMC are in the offing.
Rajib Banerjee, Rabindranath Ghosh, Gautam Deb, and Chandranath Sinha were the four ministers missing in Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.
Three of them, according to reports, have given “valid reasons” to the party justifying their absence from the meeting. However, Rajib Banerjee, the forest minister, has raised eyebrows in the political circles of poll-bound West Bengal with his silence.
Lately, Rajib Banerjee has been vocal about his grievances with the TMC leadership. He met TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee on Monday for the second time in a week, apparently to discuss his concerns.
Rajib Banerjee, speaking to reporters after Monday’s meeting, said his situation can’t be equated with that of former party colleague Suvendu Adhikari who recently joined the BJP.
“Being a disciplined soldier of the party I will not publicly say anything in this regard. I had previously visited Partha-da’s residence in the past. I visited again after being called by the leadership. Not much should be read into it,” he had said in response to the question of whether he has any grievance against the TMC leadership.
“My situation cannot be equated with that of Suvendu Adhikari. He has his personal views, I have my personal views. There is no relation between our standpoints. We are two individuals,” Mr Banerjee had said.
At BJP’s Medinipur rally on Saturday, the TMC witnessed the biggest desertion from the party in a single day when Suvendhu Adhikari, a former state minister, along with 34 other leaders, including five MLAs and an MP, joined the BJP in presence of home minister Amit Shah.
The TMC, however, hit back at the BJP by inducting Sujata Mondal Khan, the wife of BJYM state chief and Bishnupur MP Soumitra Khan, from the BJP on Monday.
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