Trinamool Congress Party’s leader and current minister in Mamata Banerjee’s government, Shrikant Mahato, has been issued a notice by the party after he lashed out at his fellow party leaders. A video clip of him criticizing various TMC leaders went viral on Sunday 28th August 2022. A notice was issued by the TMC to the Shalboni MLA who is currently the Minister of State for Consumer Security.
In this viral video, minister Shrikant Mahato alleged that leaders like Uma Sareen, Sandhya Roy, Moon Moon Sen, June Mallya, Sayani, Sayantika, Mimi Chakraborty, Nusrat Jahan, Nepal Singh, Sandeep Singh, and Uttara Singh are looting people and unfortunately TMC is looking at such leaders to be the assets of the party.
This video of Shrikant Mahato appeared during a time when the incumbent TMC government is already under pressure over corruption allegations following the arrest of Partha Chatterjee in connection with the SSC recruitment scam and Anubrata Modal’s arrest in the cattle smuggling case.
In the two-and-a-half-minute long viral video, Shrikant Mahato said, “Don’t we have the right to live? Don’t we have citizenship? That’s what we want to say. From today, I will start the journey towards victory through planning. We will submit a memorandum to the police and the BDO. What will we do if our citizenship and rights are taken away? What should be done? For that, we will unite the civil society of West Bengal, the peasant society of West Bengal, and the intellectual society of West Bengal. We want to go up to Mamata Didi.”
Shrikant Mahato further said in the viral video, “From Abhishek Banerjee to Mamata Banerjee, and from Partha to Subrata Bakshi, I tried to convince them all. They didn’t want to understand. They identify bad people as good people. So how will we survive? One must call a bad person a bad person and a good person should always be called a good person. You have to listen to good people. But they are listening to the bad guys. If the looters like Uma Sareen, Sandhya Roy, Moon Moon Sen, June Malia, Sayani, Sayantika, Mimi, Nusrat, Nepal Singh, Sandeep Singh, and Uttara Singh are considered assets, then how you are going to build the party?”
He added, “If those who loot the money of the people of Shalboni are assets of the party and if those who print money are called leaders in the party, then it is better that such ministers go to jail. Otherwise, people will blame us and say that these ministers are all thieves.”
In this video, Shrikant Mahato can be heard saying, “The party will listen to the thieves only. People from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata will commit robberies, and we’ll be silent. Should I be in such a cabinet?”
Reacting to the video, TMC leader from Pashchim Medinipur Ajit Maiti said, “The minister said something that reached the party in the form of videos. That talk is a little offensive, and for this reason, Shrikant Mahato has been issued a show-cause notice on the instructions of the party yesterday. Today he replied and expressed regret.”
OpIndia couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of the video, however, TMC’s action suggests it is a genuine rant from their minister.
