Kolkata, Sep 24 (IANS) Trinamool Congress has decided to take strong disciplinary action against rebel MLA from Bhagwangola Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Idris Ali, for anti-party activities after he accused his party leadership in the district of ensuring tickets to candidates in lieu of money in the recently concluded panchayat polls in West Bengal.
A senior member of the West Bengal cabinet said that the matter will be reported to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and based on her instructions, the matter will be referred to the internal disciplinary committee.
“Idris Ali is a senior party leader. He had been a Lok Sabha member earlier. He had been censured by an internal disciplinary committee before also. But it seems that he is not in a mood to rectify his ways. The party is not taking his latest comments lightly. The chief minister will be informed and necessary action will be taken,” the member of the state cabinet said.
The party has also taken a special note of the fact that Ali made these comments to media persons while he was within the state assembly premises.
“In several districts, especially in Murshidabad, money had been the deciding factor in selection of party candidates in the panchayat polls. The block presidents in the districts were mainly responsible for this collection of money to ensure party tickets. Even the decided names of candidates were changed at the last moments and obviously money played a role in that. First the block president in the district needs to be changed,” Ali said.
Ali’s comments were a virtual echo of similar comments made by another Trinamool Congress legislator from the same district, Humayun Kabir, who is the party MLA from Bharatpur Assembly constituency. The successive comments by the two party MLAs reveals the nasty infighting within the state’s ruling party in Murshidabad district, where a number of party MLAs are already up in arms against the district president Shaoni Sinha Roy.