NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, June 9 -- Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and discussed ways to further strengthen the Opposition INDIA alliance.
Sources said the two leaders are learnt to have discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward after the opposition bloc meeting, and following an exodus of Trinamool MPs after the party's defeat at the hands of the BJP in the recent West Bengal assembly polls.
Even as Mamata Banerjee, former West Bengal chief minister and Abhishek Banerjee, Lok Sabha MP, were in the national Capital for their scheduled meetings with opposition leader, the state CID launched simultaneous searches at Trinamool Congress's central office Kalighat residence of TMC chief and at national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's Camac Street office in the city, probing alleged forged signatures of TMC MLAs that triggered a party split.
The agency officers said the raids were held to dredge out the original copy of TMC's meeting resolution book and attendance sheet containing signatures of 70 MLAs present at the May 6 meeting held the party office adjacent to Mamata Banerjee's residence.
On Mamata-Sonia Gandhi meeting, both the parties did not disclose details but the sources said Banerjee is learnt to have stressed on Opposition unity, and asserted that the INDIA bloc should work together in taking on the BJP on various issues, including those concerning the public. At the INDIA bloc meeting here on Monday, Banerjee had urged all the constituents to forget the past and stand united.
Tuesday's meeting came after Banerjee and Gandhi, the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party, met each other warmly with a hug during the opposition meeting held at the Constitution Club near Parliament House.
The Congress shared pictures of the bonhomie between the two leaders.
The meeting also followed a rebellion within the Trinamool, with several party MPs deciding to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA.
The CID searches in Kolkata triggered a political storm, with several TMC leaders condemning the operation and alleging it was a politically motivated attempt to tarnish Mamata Banerjee's image.
Senior leader Kunal Ghosh questioned the timing of the search, noting that CID officials arrived at Mamata Banerjee's residence while she was in Delhi attending INDIA bloc meetings with Sonia Gandhi. TMC Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien termed the CID operation a case of "political vendetta shamelessly timed".
Shortly after the CID team left, Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose posted on X that the search amounted to "humiliation, intimidation and vendetta". Sharing a photograph of a seizure list showing "NIL", she wrote that nothing had been seized, damaged or destroyed during the operation and questioned its purpose. She alleged that the search was aimed at publicity and harassment of the former Chief Minister.
Dramatic scenes unfolded outside Mamata Banerjee's residence when CID officials attempted to enter the premises. Former Rajya Sabha MP Subhasish Chakraborty, who was in charge of the party office, initially refused to allow the team entry, leading to a brief exchange before officials entered the premises.
Soon after, MP Kalyan Banerjee arrived and sought entry, claiming he was representing Mamata Banerjee as her lawyer. While CID officials searched for the meeting resolution book, Banerjee accused the BJP-backed state administration of trying to defame the TMC chief.
Banerjee further claimed that Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was pursuing a politics of revenge and using investigative agencies to harass Opposition leaders. He also maintained that no FIR had been registered against Mamata Banerjee in the matter.
Meanwhile, as searches were underway at Abhishek Banerjee's Camac Street office, he wrote to the CID seeking additional time to appear before investigators in connection with the case. The CID had summoned him on Monday, directing him to appear by 5 pm on Tuesday. After several hours of searching, CID officials left the Camac Street office in the evening.
Agency officials, accompanied by personnel from the Kalighat police station and a large contingent of women police personnel, arrived at the party's central office at 30B Harish Chatterjee Street in Kalighat at around 3 pm, sources said.
While the search operations at the Harish Chatterjee Street premises lasted for about two hours, the one at Camac Street went on for three, with no significant seizures made by the agency from either of the two premises, an officer said.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.