Trinamool Congress moves EC on ‘horse trading’ by PM Modi, Mamata says cancel his candidature

READ | 40 of your MLAs are in touch with me, will desert on May 23: PM Modi to Mamata

Addressing a rally at Bhadreswar, in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, Banerjee called Modi’s remarks “unconstitutional”. “Yesterday… he said about 40 MLAs (from TMC) are in touch with him. He is a shameless Prime Minister. A Prime Minister is indulging in horse-trading. His party is not like our party. His party is full of thieves and functions only on money (power). Our party functions on the sacrifices of our party workers,” she said.

Stating that she has “no worries”, she said, “If one party worker leaves, I will create 1 lakh more workers. For this reason (Modi’s speech), his candidature must be cancelled.”

READ | ‘He is a shameless PM’: Mamata’s retort to Modi over his ‘TMC MLAs will join BJP’ remark

Banerjee accused Modi of violating the Constitution by making “unconstitutional statements” while holding a constitutional position, and asserted: “He has no right to remain the Prime Minister.”

In its complaint letter to the EC, signed by TMC’s Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien, the party said: “We are shocked and surprised to hear the utterances of Sri Narendra Modi… saying in an election campaign meeting that 40 AITC MLAs are in touch with him and will cross over to BJP…. This is very unbecoming of the Prime Minister. He is trying to influence voters to vote for BJP, creating a mala fide impression in their minds that many MLAs of AITC are in touch with him and will cross over to his party, which will have a bearing on the fate of the present government in West Bengal.

“We lodge a strong protest against this mischievous campaign of Sri Modi.”

It says: “Moreover, this tone of speech is very likely to create an indication of impending horse-trading related to election. We demand that the Election Commission of lndia take cognizance of this unfounded, inappropriate and illegal campaign and utterances of Mr Narendra Modi and take strong action against him as per rules.”

While the TMC maintains that the party is intact, and that Modi’s assertion about 40 MLAs a “fiction”, the fact that it has accused the Prime Minister of “impending horse trading” shows that the ruling party in West Bengal, which has lost several leaders to the saffron fold, is not willing to take any chances.

After the party’s erstwhile number 2, Mukul Roy, joined the BJP, the TMC lost MPs Soumitra Khan and Anupam Hazra to the BJP. This was followed by MLA Arjun Singh, and Bharati Ghosh, the former IPS officer once known to have been close to Banerjee.

All these leaders, barring Roy, are now contesting the elections on BJP tickets.