Breaking her silence on the cash-for-query allegations against Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said any move to expel the lawmaker from Lok Sabha would make her more popular ahead of the 2024 general elections.
A parliament ethics committee, which examined the allegations against Moitra, had earlier this month recommended her disqualification from the lower house and a detailed investigation into the matter.
"Now, they are planning to expel Mahua (from Parliament). She will become more popular as a result. Whatever she used to say inside (Parliament), she will now say those things outside. Would anyone do something like this three months before the elections if he is not stupid?" Banerjee said.
The chief minister was addressing a special session of the party at the Netaji Indoor Stadium in Kolkata.
Banerjee’s remarks are seen as a clear message of support to Moitra, a staunch critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the party amid the row. Earlier this month, the MP was appointed Trinamool Congress’s Krishnanagar district chief.
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Moitra has been in the middle of a political storm after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey accused her of taking bribe from businessman Darshan Hiranandani for asking questions in parliament targeting Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani.
Dubey had also written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla seeking action against Moitra.
The ethics committee, headed by BJP MP Vinod Kumar Sonkar, recommended Moitra’s expulsion from Lok Sabha and a detailed probe against her by a government agency on November 9. The panel adopted its report, with six members voting in favour and four against.
The committee chairman will table the report in the Lok Sabha during the next session and there will be a debate on it. The house will vote on a government motion on the recommendations.
Moitra will be expelled only if the house adopts the report.
The MP, meanwhile, mocked the ethics committee decision, calling it a “prefixed match by a kangaroo court” and the death of parliamentary democracy.
She reiterated her charges in a recent interview with THE WEEK and said the panel’s recommendations were “laughable”.
“If you see the recommendations of the Ethics Committee, it's laughable. Number one is to expel, number two is to ask an agency to investigate. If you haven't found any evidence, how do you expel someone? The Ethics Committee can't expel, a Special Committee or a Privileges Committee can. So this is a kangaroo court. It is a BJP house. Let the expulsion happen and I will then let people know what I am going to do next,” she said.
