The Bharatiya Janata Party is planning to get Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra expelled from the Lok Sabha, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged on Thursday.
Trinamool Congress supremo, however, said that if the BJP were to do so, it would only make Mahua Moitra more popular.
On Thursday, West Bengal CM spoke in support of Moitra for the first time since the controversy broke out while addressing a gathering of Trinamool Congress leaders in Kolkata.
“Their [BJP] plan is to expel Mahua,” Banerjee said.
“This will only make her more popular. For three months she will say what she was saying inside the Parliament to the media outside. How does it matter? Only those who are stupid can make such an attempt.”
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and advocate Jai Anant Dehadrai, reportedly Moitra’s estranged partner, have accused Moitra of taking bribes from businessman Darshan Hiranandani to ask questions in Parliament.
“The questions were also often focused on the Adani Group, another business conglomerate, Hiranandani Group, was bidding for business against,” the BJP MP alleged.
The Lok Sabha ethics panel, which investigated the allegations, recommended Moitra’s expulsion from Parliament, alleging that her actions were “highly objectionable, unethical, heinous and criminal.”
Moitra had said in an interview in October that she gave Hiranandani access to her online Lok Sabha account but denied taking any bribes from him. The outspoken MP had claimed that MPs do not type their own questions and that the queries can only be submitted upon entering a one-time password, which is delivered to the phone number of the legislators.
