India News | TMC Slams as False, Vexatious Adhikari's Remarks on Shah-Mamata Conversation

New Delhi, Apr 19 (PTI) The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday rejected as false and vexatious BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari's claim that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah for restoration of the TMC's national party status.

Speaking in Kolkata, Banerjee said she will resign if it is proven that she dialled Shah after her party lost the national party status.

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In a letter to Adhikari, Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien demanded that Adhikari should immediately withdraw his statement, "failing which we shall be constrained to initiate appropriate legal proceedings against you and Amit Shah, who needlessly shall be drawn into a serious litigation for such falsehood of yours."

Referring to remarks made by Adhikari during a rally at Singur in Hooghly district on Tuesday in which spoke of the purported conversation between Shah and Banerjee, O'Brien said that no such discussion had happened between the two.

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"False, incorrect and vexatious claims made by you, knowing them to be untrue. Such words have been uttered in respect of and involving our Chairperson Mamata Banerjee.

"We have been advised by our Hon'ble Chairperson that no such conversation ever took place between her and Amit Shah. By making such a false statement, you have attempted to defame our party and mislead the public," he said.

"It is evident that you have caused to make such an incorrect and motivated statement without any enquiry to verify its authenticity including from Amit Shah and in fact knowing the same to be a lie," O'Brien said in the letter, a copy of which has also been marked to Shah.

The EC withdrew the national party status of the TMC, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) last week.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was speaking to reporters at West Bengal's state secretariat, said that her party's name will remain the All India Trinamool Congress.

"I will resign if it is proven that I called up Amit Shah over TMC's national party status," she said.

The letter by O'Brien quoted Adhikari as saying at the rally, "She (Banerjee) called him four times and fell at his feet. She fell at his feet over the phone call. She asked if her national status could be kept till 24 or not.

"Mr. Amit Shah said that no, such national status cannot be retained. You have not received votes and our Election Commission is not like your Sourav Das. Bound by laws, you have gone beyond the law, that is why you are no longer all-India, you are restricted within the territories of West Bengal."

Adhikari quit the TMC and joined the BJP in December 2020 ahead of the assembly election. He defeated the TMC chief in Nandigram constituency in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)