Trinamul Congress leader Mahua Moitra on Thursday defied the Enforcement Directorate (ED)'s summons to appear for questioning in Delhi and stayed back in her Lok Sabha constituency of Krishnanagar, conducting mass-connect initiatives at Kaliganj.
The expelled Lok Sabha member, fielded again from the constituency by Mamata Banerjee, remained busy not only on the ground but also on social media, attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his phone call to her rival BJP candidate Amrita Roy.
“Elections have been declared and my job is to campaign. The ED will do its job, and I will do mine,” she told journalists.
Moitra was served a new summons by the ED in the gifts-for-query case. She had appealed to the Election Commission of India earlier this week to frame guidelines for investigation by central agencies once the model code of conduct kicked in, for politically exposed persons like her.
“The ED likes me. They visited me on a number of occasions. The CBI’s team also came. Now the ED will come. This is just the beginning. The Prime Minister will come, (Union home minister) Amit Shah, too, will. Many leaders and ministers will come. I welcome them all, and advise them to take sarpuria (a famous Krishnanagar sweetmeat) and to increase my vote count,” she said.
Moitra left her rented office in Krishnanagar for Kaliganj at 9.50am and reached Gobra Chherakhal at 11.10am. She took a boat ride to Nayachar, an island in the Jalangi. At 11.30am, she took an e-rickshaw to travel around the island and interact with people.
Before leaving for Krishnanagar at 12.30pm, the Trinamul candidate took a tea break at a stall and surprised its owner Santanu Poddar and others by making tea. In the afternoon, she met people in Krishnanagar.
A Trinamul leader close to Moitra said the move to ignore the ED summons was calculated and done under the instructions of the party.
“It was a gesture of protest on her part, against the way central agencies — under directions of its BJP bosses — have desperately been harassing the political opponents. Mahua Moitra has already written to the ECI, but is yet to receive a response,” said the leader.
Moitra appeared unperturbed and refused to acknowledge receiving the summons from the ED, while accusing the central agency of leaking information to the media.
“I had filed a petition against the ED in Delhi High Court, seeking justice against the leak of information by the agency. The ED then submitted an affidavit and stated that it would say nothing. But how have things been coming out even after that? I have not told anybody about the summons, so how did the information become public?” she asked.
A senior BJP leader in Nadia said by ignoring the summons, she was inviting further trouble.
“She is being over-smart, despite committing acts of corruption. People have seen what happens if an accused on repeated occasions skips summons served by the ED, in particular. She should show courage to face the probe team, instead of doing this," Jagannath Sarkar, a vice-president of the BJP's state unit and the party's Ranaghat candidate, said.
In a statement on X, Moitra jeered at Prime Minister Modi over the mention of 18th-century Nadia feudal lord Raja Krishnachandra Roy in a conversation with the BJP’s Krishnanagar candidate Amrita Roy on Wednesday. Krishnachandra Roy had sided with Mir Jafar and others to help the British colonisers by betraying Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, in the pivotal Battle of Plassey in 1757.
The BJP candidate is the wife of a descendant (and still referred to as a Rani by some in Krishnanagar) of the 18th-century feudal lord and hailed him for his role in 1757. In their conversation, Modi seemed to agree.
Accusing the Prime Minister of inadequate preparation, Moitra wrote: “Krishnachandra Roy’s Samaj-sudhar works used to be taught to us” - Hon’ble PM @narendramodi tells BJP Krishnanagar candidate.”
“Confused between Social Reformer Raja Rammohan Roy & Krishnachandra? Bad homework, Sir. Tch. Tch,” she added, along with an audio clip from a recording of the conversation released by the BJP. “The people of Bengal know only one Raja (Raja Ram Mohan Roy) & one Rani (Rani Rashmoni). There’s no room for any royals in our democratic polity.”
Trinamul complained against the BJP to the EC for the release of the conversation, alleging violations of the MCC.
