Kolkata: Abhishek Banerjee, the nephew of former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been facing flak from his own party and the BJP since Trinamool Congress were voted out of power in early May.
Now, it’s the turn of Mamata’s Trinamool to train guns on incumbent CM Suvendu Adhikari.
A day after the deadly stampede at Kolkata’s Chorbagan Durga Puja pandal killed 19 people, including a child, the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress (MAITC) alleged that attempts are being made to shield the organisers, most of whom are from the BJP.
MAITC claimed that Suvendu’s nephew Debdeep Adhikari is part of the Chorbagan Durga Puja committee, and sought to know when he would be arrested.
“This accident is a complete failure of the administration, and the concerned Puja committee must take responsibility. There are many influential individuals involved. The committee’s officials must be arrested immediately. The municipal corporation and OSD must be removed. An impartial investigation is needed. The committee is filled with BJP members. They are being shielded. It didn’t rain for the first time today. Blaming just the rain is an attempt to cover up administrative failure,” MAITC spokesperson and MLA Kunal Ghosh said.
In a post on X, the party said Debdeep Adhikari is chief patron of the puja committee, and demanded action against him as well as the panel’s chairman Vijay Ojha, who is a BJP MLA, and chief adviser Tamoghna Ghosh, who happens to be BJP district president of North Kolkata.
“Will @KolkataPolice take any action against the first three names or are they being protected by the illegitimate CM himself?” MAITC posted.
MAITC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee also highlighted the issue.
“When are you putting the guilty nephew in jail Suvendu babu?” Abhishek wrote in a post on Facebook.
Expressing doubt that Ojha, Ghosh and the CM’s nephew may be spared, Abhishek said Suvendu must carry out his constitutional role as an administrator.
West Bengal CM Adhikari had inaugurated the Chorbagan Puja Pandal, did he not look into security arrangements when he visited the pandal, won’t he be held accountable for every single life lost, MAITC asked.
The allegations came even as seven people, including club officials, were arrested and a Special Investigation Team headed by a sitting judge of the Calcutta high court announced to probe the stampede.
