Partha Chatterjee has said he is a victim of conspiracy, choosing to defend himself somewhat cryptically a day after he was sacked from the cabinet and suspended from the Trinamul Congress and appearing to draw a distinction between the chief minister and the party.
“I am a victim of conspiracy,” Chatterjee told reporters while entering the Joka ESI hospital where he had been brought for a medical check-up by the Enforcement Directorate on Friday afternoon.
Later, asked by reporters to name the conspirator as he was leaving the hospital, Chatterjee said: “See the decision that the party took.”
“The time is not right.... It will have an impact on an impartial probe. Time will answer all questions,” he added on being repeatedly asked whether the party’s decision was right.
As Chatterjee got into the car, with reporters continuing to ask whether Mamata Banerjee’s decision to remove him from the cabinet was right, he said: “Yes, it is right.”
Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had on Thursday announced Chatterjee’s suspension from the party after a meeting of its disciplinary committee. Two hours earlier, Mamata had removed him from her ministry.
“He clearly drew a distinction between the decision of the chief minister and the party. It was clear that he was endorsing Didi as he believes that the chief minister is sympathetic towards him whereas Abhishek is not that emotional,” a Trinamul leader said.
Some Trinamul leaders wondered whether Chatterjee’s comment that “time will answer all questions” was a veiled threat to the party amid the widespread murmurs that several ruling party leaders were part of the SSC scam.
“Did it mean that he would spill the beans in front of the ED sleuths?” asked a party insider, worried about the fallout of Chatterjee’s arrest.
Sources close to Abhishek, however, ruled out any such possibility. They claimed the recruitment scam was the handiwork of Chatterjee and some of his close aides.
Chatterjee will find it difficult to handle the slew of legal cases against him without the party’s support, and that is why he is particularly upset at the party’s decision, a Trinamul leader said.
Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh wanted to know why it had taken Chatterjee so many days to talk about a conspiracy.
“The party and the government have already announced their decision on Partha Chatterjee. If someone is a victim of conspiracy, he should have spoken about it on the very first day,” he said.
Ghosh had earlier asked why Chatterjee -- who had said after his arrest that he had tried to contact the chief minister -- was not telling the reporters that he was innocent.
In the evening, Trinamul veteran Sougata Roy said there was no conspiracy against Chatterjee and that he was himself responsible for everything he had done. Roy’s statement reaffirmed the party's stand.
Opposition parties cited Chatterjee’s statements to train their guns at Mamata.
“Although he may have different views about his party, he declared that he had full faith in the chief minister. This means his involvement with all the corruption and irregularities was known to the chief minister,” CPM veteran Sujan Chakraborty said.
“If there is any conspiracy, please reveal the names of the conspirators. He is yet to break his silence about the others involved in the corruption,” former state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
