Stoking Fresh Speculations, 4 Bengal Ministers Skip Mamata's Cabinet Meet After Suvendu Moves to BJP

Days after former Cabinet Minister Suvendu Adhikari joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), four ministers of the West Bengal government were absent from a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the State Secretariat on Tuesday. Adhikari joined the BJP at a rally held by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the state, sparking speculations about rising dissent in the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Two of the minister absent from the Tuesday meet — Tourism Minister Gautam Deb and Minister for North Bengal Development Rabindranath Ghosh — belonged to north Bengal. However, the reasons for their absence is seemed genuine as they had not been attending Cabinet meetings since the Covid-19 outbreak.

The other two ministers missing from the meeting were Minister for Fisheries Chandranath Sinha from Birbhum, and Minister for Forests, Rajib Banerjee from Howrah. Banerjee’s absence from the meet seemed politcally significant as there are speculations about him quitting the TMC with the minister alleging “favouritism” in the party at few instances.

Attempts were also made by the party leadership to placate Banerjee with other senior leaders meeting him a few weeks ago. Incidentally, the State Secretariat, Nabanna, is located in his constituency of Howrah.

Adhikari too stayed away from Cabinet meetings for several months before ultimately quitting the TMC and moving to the BJP.

Amid the rising political temperature in the state ahead of the Assembly election, BJP state vice-president Pratap Banerjee issued a show cause to the general secretary of the state unit, Sayantan Basu, who had “ventured to give bytes to electronic media which constitute derogatory and anti-party statements.”

Speaking to reporters, Basu said that many in the BJP were opposed to TMC MLA Jitendra Tewari joining the party. Union Minister and Asansol MP Babul Supriyo had also issued public statements against inducting Tewari into the BJP.

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