Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has broken her long silence on the controversy surrounding Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra’s looming expulsion from the Lok Sabha.
At an event in Kolkata, as she attacked the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the use of central investigative agencies to target rival leaders, “Mahua Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha is being planned… but this will help her before (the 2024 general) election,” Banerjee said on Thursday.
“Central agencies targetting opposition leaders at present will go after BJP, following the 2024 election,” she said, “This government at the centre is there only for three more months.”
Prior to this significant message of support, Banerjee had refused to discuss the furore surrounding Mahua Moitra, who is accused of taking bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions targeting the Narendra Modi government in Parliament.
Before that, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien simply said the party would take an appropriate decision after the ethics panel inquiry concludes.
That inquiry finished earlier this month – following a stormy hearing in which Moitra accused the committee of asking “filthy” questions while recording her statement.
In its report, now before Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, the committee recommended Moitra be expelled from Parliament when it holds the Winter Session next month. The committee said it found her actions “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal”.
Moitra has dismissed the allegations against her, terming them as “false, baseless and not supported by even a shred of evidence”. The allegations have been levelled against her by BJP Nishikant Dubey, citing Supreme Court lawyer Jai Anant Dehadrai’s letter, which claimed the TMC MP took bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.