Kolkata: Two Congress MLAs are likely to soon join the Trinamool Congress and may be inducted in Mamata Banerjee ministry in a Cabinet reshuffle scheduled next week, setting the stage for fresh confrontation between the two former allies. "Two MLAs Humayan Kabir and Krishnendu Chowdhury are expected to join the Trinamool Congress on November 20," Trinamool Congress all-India general secretary Mukul Roy said in Kolkata.
Reacting sharply to the development, WBPCC chief Pradip Bhattacharya said, "This has made it clear that the sole agenda of Trinamool Congress is to break up the Congress in Bengal...But take it from me, the Congress will prove its organisational strength in Murshidabad by winning the Rejinagar seat," Bhattacharya said.
Mukul Roy, refused to comment on Bhattacherjee's charge, saying "I won't say anything now. We will state whatever we have to say at an appropriate time." In an apparent jolt before next year's panchayet election, Kabir, the Congress MLA from Rejinagar, said he was assured a ministerial berth by the Chief Minister in a Cabinet reshuffle expected to take place on November 21.
"During a meeting with Mamatadi she told me to inform her of my decision by November 16. She has assured me of a berth in the Cabinet reshuffle," Kabir, the Murshidabad district Congress secretary RPT secretary, said. "I will formally join the Trinamool Congress on November 20 after quitting all posts in the Congress," Kabir said over phone from his Rejinagar home.
He said he would resign as Congress MLA and contest a fresh election on the Trinamol Congress ticket from Rejinagar. The Trinamool Congress parted ways with Congress-led UPA government in September over big ticket reforms. Accusing a section of the Murshidabad district Congress for sidelining him, Kabir said that his decision to quit the party followed strained relations with Union minister of state for railways and Murshidabad district Congress strongman Adhir Chowdhury, who allegedly threw him out of his construction business in August 2012.
On the possibility of his becoming a minister, Krishnendu Chowdhury, who had announced that he would join the Trinamool Congress on November 20, said, "It is the prerogative of the Chief Minister who she will induct in her ministry." In an apparent attack on Union Minister of state for health and the Malda district Congress president Abu Hashem Khan Chowdhury, Krishnendu Chowdhury alleged that the Malda district Congress Comittee has been turned into a 'private limited company'.
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