December 5, 2020 5:38:40 am
Mamata Banerjee. (Archive)
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders in contact with the Opposition were free to resign from the party rather than weaken it from within, and warned that “anti-party activities” would not be tolerated. .
The TMC chairman made the comments during an online meeting with the party’s top brass. They arrived a week after dissident leader Suvendu Adhikari resigned from the state cabinet. Dialogue with him broke off earlier this week.
Banerjee said: “If someone wants to go, I have no problem. Those who quit the party for fear of [central] agencies, I personally don’t like them.
But I don’t hate them. If you want to stay with me, you have to fight. Those who are quitting can pray for my death, but they can’t wish for more than that. “
Although Banerjee did not take a name, party sources said his taunt was directed at Adhikari. TMC MLA Mihir Goswami joined the BJP last week.
“At a party meeting held during the day, Banerjee said that if a leader leaves the party, he can create one more lakh of such leaders,” said a senior TMC leader on condition of anonymity.
Suvendu Adhikari’s father and Kanthi Sisir Adhikari’s TMC MP were present at the meeting. “The party will not tolerate any anti-party activity. The party will take severe measures, “said the president of TMC.
The prime minister called on Sisir Adhikari to halt anti-party activities and fire the “traitors” in TMC’s district unit. “Sisir da said he will investigate it,” said the TMC leader who did not want to be named.
During the four-hour meeting, which began at 2 p.m., Banerjee spoke about how the TMC was built from scratch in 1998 and the party’s early fighting days.
At the meeting, the prime minister unveiled a new outreach program called “Bangodhwani [voice of Bengal]”As part of which TMC leaders and workers will reach out to people across the state to inform them about the development work done by the TMC government since it came to power in 2011, the sources said. The campaign will run from December 11 to 24.
With PTI inputs
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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