Mahua Moitra, the embattled Trinamool Congress MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal, is contemplating taking the legal route to challenge her impending expulsion from the Lok Sabha. Speaking to The Daily Guardian from her constituency where she is spending her Kali Puja and Deepawali, she said: “Let them expel me first and then obviously… In its hurry to nail me, the Ethics committee has made huge faux pas. I am proud to go down in parliamentary history as the first person to be unethically expelled by an Ethics Committee whose mandate doesn’t include expulsion. The BJP wanted to paint me as a villain, they have only succeeded in making me a heroine. You should see what the common people of my constituency are saying. Their support is my strength.”
Moitra said that the committee had, in its hurry to silence an anti-Adani voice, had recommended her expulsion without any evidence. “They recommended my expulsion without an iota of evidence. Then they ask the Government to ask the CBI to find evidence. This is monkey business in a kangaroo court.” The 479-page report by the Ethics panel, chaired by Bharatiya Janata Party Lok Sabha member Vinod Kumar Sonkar has accused Moitra of accepting “money — cash and kind, amenities and various other facilities” from businessman Darshan Hiranandani.
The MP from Krishnanagar asserted that the accusation made against her by the BJP and its member Nishikant Dubey would enable her to secure a larger margin in 2024 when she runs for the Lok Sabha. “The falsehoods and the vindictive attitude of the BJP will backfire. In fact, I have already put it on record that this will help me double my winning margin in the 2024 elections.”
Meanwhile, her party, the Trinamool Congress has now finally shed its no-comment policy regarding Moitra. Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee called the Krishnanagar MP a “victim of politics”. Banerjee said the “firebrand leader is competent enough to fight her own battles”.
Banerjee accused the BJP of targeting Trinamool leaders. “I feel this step by the Central Government and what I read of the Ethics committee report, they have said an investigation should happen against her. If you do not have anything against Mahua (Moitra) and it is the subject of investigation, why has an expulsion been recommended? I feel Mahua is competent enough to fight her battles on her own. They have been victimising me for four years too. It is their standard practice,” he said. Following Banerjee’s lead, the party’s spokespersons have started talking in her favour in television debates.
However, the party’s official spokesperson, Kunal Ghosh, parried questions on whether Mahua Moitra would get a ticket in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.