TROUBLE FOR MAMATA

Even as the MP from Diamond Harbour and nephew of Mamata Banerjee, Abhishek has been asked to appear before the agency in New Delhi on September 6 and his wife has been asked to appear before them on September 1… the West Bengal CM’s kept up the political momentum with her comments on Saturday. FPJ also tracks the bumpy road it has been for the CM after she won the assembly polls.

ON MAY 17, 2021

The CBI arrested 3 TMC MLAs, including two ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee in connection with Narada scam case. Another leader is Madan Mitra. The agency also arrested former TMC leader Sovhan Chatterjee. Mamata had rushed to CBI office where

MAMATA SPEAK

these leaders were kept.

ON MAY 28, 2021

The Calcutta High Court granted interim bail to three Trinamool leaders, including two Bengal ministers, and a former Kolkata mayor arrested by the CBI in the Narada sting tapes case.

“Why are you (Centre) unleashing the ED against us. Against your one case we will raise bagfuls. We know how to fight back. We know the history of Gujarat." "No use pointing fingers at the Trinamool for corruption in coal. It is under the centre. What about its ministers? What about the BJP leaders who looted the coal belt of Bengal, the Asansol region" "The Centre is trying to sell of the country. Railways, airports, PSUs...they want to sell everything off. Can you sell the soil of the country?"

WHY NOV 5 IS IMPORTANT?

As per the Constitution, Mamata who lost the Assembly poll by a mere 1,956 votes to her 1-time ally Suvendu Adhikari, must fight the bypoll and be pronounced an MLA by Nov 5, 2021, or else there will be constitutional crisis for the government.

OPTIONS FOR HER

The CM has also filed a poll petition alleging irregularities in the counting process in Nandigram Assembly polls. Ms Banerjee has filed another petition demanding recusal of the Judge Kausik Chanda for alleged BJP links. The Judge has reserved on order on the recusal petition. Another option is the setting of West Bengal Legislative

Council (Vidhan Parishad) which was promised before the polls and has been approved by the State Cabinet. Like the election petition, setting up the Upper House of the State Legislature and nominating the Chief Minister is time consuming. It also requires Centre’s assent, which may not be forthcoming, some political observers say.