Four Ministers skip West Bengal Cabinet meeting chaired by Mamata Banerjee

Absence of Ministers stokes speculation amid defections from Trinamool to BJP.

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee. File Photo.

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. The development, which comes days after Suvendu Adhikari, a former Cabinet Minister joined the BJP at a rally held by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, has sparked speculation about rising dissent in the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Two of the absentees were from north Bengal — Tourism Minister Gautam Deb and Minister for North Bengal Development Rabindranath Ghosh. However, the absence of these ministers from north Bengal, about 600 km from Kolkata, is not unusual as they have not been attending Cabinet meetings since the outbreak of COVID-19.

The other two ministers who skipped the meeting were Minister for Fisheries Chandranath Sinha from Birbhum, and Minister for Forests, Rajib Banerjee from Howrah, who has been vocal about alleged “favouritism” in the TMC.

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

The ministers’ absence has given rise to speculation given that Mr. Adhikari had stayed away from Cabinet meetings for several months before ultimately moving to the BJP.

BJP show cause

Amid the rising political temperature in the State ahead of the Assembly election, the State BJP leadership issued a show cause to Sayantan Basu, general secretary of the State unit. The letter issued by BJP State vice-president Pratap Banerjee said Mr Basu had, on December 18, “ventured to give bytes to electronic media which constitute derogatory and anti-party statements.”

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