Trinamool leader trades charges on party leaders

Two days after he was removed as president of Indian National Trinamool Trade Union Congress (INTTUC) by party chief Mamata Banerjee,Shovon Dev Chattopadhyay,government chief whip and veteran INTTUC leader,lashed out at the rival faction of the Trinamool Congress labour wing led by minister for labour Purnendu Basu,on Friday,saying that unlike “some other leaders of his party,he was not involved in any business syndicate”.

“My relationship with INTTUC will remain in tact and I will continue to hold the various posts in different labour unions that I have been holding for so long. Those who rejoice at my removal from the post of INTTUC president should refrain from doing that. I am not a burden on the party and it does not face any problem because of me. There are stories about many (of our leaders) running illegal supply business. But there is no such allegation against me,’’ Chattopadhyay said on Friday at Writers’ Buildings.

Mamata Banerjee on Friday had a long meeting with the veteran leader – one of the few leaders who,along with Banerjee,left Congress in 1998 and formed Trinamool Congress. She even gave Chattopadhyay the assignment of handling the scores of people who come to meet her at her Kaighat residence every day.

Story continues below this ad

Chattopadhyay’s Friday’s outburst was aimed at labour minister Purnendu Basu and another INTTUC leader Dola Sen,a close associate of Basu. Sen,like Basu,is a former Naxalite.

Peeved at the continuous feud among Dola Sen,INTTUC state president and Chattopadhyay,Banerjee on February 8 removed both of them from their posts. She replaced Chattopadhyay with Subrata Mukherjee – another veteran trade union leader and minister for panchayat and public health engineering.

Chattopadhyay fumed at the meeting where Banerjee informed him about the decision and told her he was ready to give up his post of chief whip too.