Trinamul expels Kabir after CM attack - Mamata carrots for some and stick for other MLAs loyal to Mukul

Humayun Kabir. Picture by Chayan Majumdar

TT, Calcutta, Feb. 26: The Trinamul leadership today expelled a Mukul Roy loyalist and attempted to woo back another who had been shorn of some responsibilities, adopting a carrot-and-stick policy while trying to fight its way out of crises on multiple fronts.

While Humayun Kabir was shown the door a day after he slammed Mamata Banerjee, Roy aide Sabyasachi Dutta, who recently put the party in a spot by welcoming the CBI's Saradha probe, was given pride of place in the same room as the chief minister and offered a snack.

Dutta, the Rajarhat-New Town MLA, spent close to 30 minutes with the chief minister in her Assembly chamber along with other Trinamul leaders and journalists and given a place close to her during a photo-op later in the day.

"Since Sabyasachi came to the Assembly today, Didi did not want to lose the opportunity to send him the message that he stood to gain if he stayed with her. Never before had she ushered him into a room full of journalists with such warmth," a Trinamul leader said.

Mamata called out to the MLA, whom she had removed as the party observer for Tripura earlier this month, as soon as he entered her chamber and asked him to take one of the packets of snacks that was being offered to Trinamul leaders and journalists.

Trinamul sources said that earlier in the day, Dutta had spent considerable amount of time with urban development minister and Mamata loyalist Firhad Hakim.

Dutta is among a handful of Trinamul MLAs who have been publicly seen with party all-India general secretary Roy since his apparent fall-out with Mamata. The other MLAs are Roy's son Subhranshu, Siuli Saha and Silabhadra Dutta. Yesterday, Silabhadra Dutta was removed as parliamentary secretary apparently because he went to Delhi with Subhranshu and met Roy.

Another rebel MLA, Swapan Ghosh, was suspended from the party yesterday for staging a dharna on the Assembly premises.

Hours before Sabyasachi Dutta was given pride of place by Mamata, Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee announced the expulsion of Murshidabad leader Kabir for six years. Served with a showcause notice, Kabir, who had gradually been sidelined in Trinamul's Murshidabad unit, had gone on the offensive yesterday, saying people would teach Mamata "a lesson" for her "arrogance" and "attempts" to make her nephew Abhishek the next chief minister.

"The disciplinary committee held a meeting today. After the statement he made, it was felt that he could no longer be in the party. The disciplinary committee's recommendation was approved by the party," Chatterjee said.

Kabir stood by what he had said. "Expulsion cannot stop me from speaking the truth about the chief minister. She will have to pay the price for her arrogance," he said.

At a time several of Roy's associates have turned rebellious, the chief minister and her lieutenants are apparently trying to woo back some of them. "This is a crisis period and Didi is trying to win over some of the dissidents," a source said.