Kolkata, June 12 (IANS) Amid the growing rift in the Trinamool Congress, party MP Saugata Roy on Friday said that some of his fellow lawmakers are claiming they did not sign any document, yet their names are still being used, even as termed whatever is happening is immoral and unethical, as these lawmakers were elected on the party’s symbol and received full support from it, with campaigning led by party President Mamata Banerjee.

Speaking to IANS, Saugata Roy said: “Some people are claiming that they did not sign, but their names are still being used. A list of signatures is being circulated in the media. It is still not clear whether 18, 19, or 20 people have signed. The formula of a two-thirds majority is being discussed. I am not interested in all this. I only want to say that whatever they are doing is immoral and unethical.”

“They won on the symbol of the Trinamool Congress. Mamata Banerjee campaigned for them, and the party gave them complete support. What happened all of a sudden that they are now thinking of leaving the party? They are meeting with (Union Minister) Bhupender Yadav and are planning to meet (Union Home Minister Amit Shah. All these developments are wrong. Such things should not happen in politics, and all this is happening because of Operation Lotus. The BJP is trying to increase its numbers,” he said.

Roy further said, “On one hand, Samik Bhattacharya is unwell and was hospitalised. On the other hand, (West Bengal Chief Minister) Suvendu Adhikari is moving aggressively. In the evening, he visited Satabdi Roy’s residence and later met some dissident leaders in Kolkata. Suvendu Adhikari is somehow trying to push Operation Lotus forward.”

Earlier in the day, three pages carrying signatures of 19 Trinamool MPs surfaced on Friday, reportedly claiming to be the main and majority bloc of the party’s representation in the Lok Sabha.

Confusion persisted over whether these three pages are the concluding portions of the purported letter that the MPs, under the leadership of Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Satabdi Roy, have reportedly submitted to the office of the Lok Sabha Speaker.

In the three pages, copies of which are available, the first signature is that of Dr Ghosh Dastidar, the four-time party Lok Sabha member from Barasat constituency in North 24 Parganas district, and the second signature is that of Satabdi Roy, an actress-turned-politician and another four-time party Lok Sabha member from Birbhum constituency in Birbhum district.

However, the authenticity of the three pages carrying the signatures of 19 Lok Sabha members could not be verified.

The signatures of other 17 Lok Sabha members that are visible in the three pages include Bapi Halder from Mathurapur, Sharmila Sarkar from Burdwan East, Prasun Banerjee from Howrah, Jagadish Verma Basunia from Cooch Behar, Asit Mal from Bolpur, Arup Chakraborty from Bankura, Kalipada Soren from Jhargram, Deepak Adhikari a.k.a, Dev from Ghatal, June Malia from Medinipur, Partha Bhowmik from Barrackpore, Khalilur Rahman from Jangipur, Abu Taher Khan from Murshidabad, Yusuf Pathan from Baharampur, Mitali Bagh from Arambagh, Mala Roy from Kolkata (Dakshin), Rachana Banerjee from Hooghly, and Sayoni Ghiosh from Jadavpur.

–IANS

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