Kolkata: Two former minority Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha members namely Khalilur Rahaman and Abu Taher Khan, who have recently joined the Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) along with 18 others, Saturday, held a meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at the State Secretariat Nabanna.
Both Rahaman and Khan are Lok Sabha members from the Murshidabad district, and both are against NCPI becoming an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
However, both of them were present at the breakfast meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s residence in New Delhi Friday with all 20 Trinamool Congress-turned-NCPI Lok Sabha members.
In such a situation Saturday’s meeting with the Chief Minister is deemed to be very crucial by political observers in the state.
However, both Rahaman and Khan, as well as the third minority Lok Sabha member from Murshidabad district, Yusuf Pathan, a cricketer-turned-politician, have clearly said that although they are against the NCPI becoming an ally of the BJP in the NDA, they will maintain a close coordination with the current Suvendu Adhikari-led BJP government in West Bengal for development in the respective Lok Sabha constituencies that they represent.
The main agenda of the meeting with the Chief Minister Adhikari Saturday was regarding the delayed tribunal decisions on the large number of voters whose names were deleted in the Murshidabad district following the special intensive revision (SIR) in the state conducted earlier this year.
Incidentally, Friday, a delegation of the “rebel but majority” faction in Trinamool Congress led by the expelled party legislator Ritabrata Banerjee had a meeting with the Chief Minister at the State Secretariat.
In that meeting, the delegation raised the same issue and sought Chief Minister Adhikari’s intervention in the matter.
The Chief Minister had already clarified that since this was a court matter, the state administration led by him would not intervene in the matter. However, he had assured that no one will be deprived of the benefits of any social welfare schemes even if their cases are under consideration of the tribunal.
However, those who have not applied to the tribunal even after their names are removed from the SIR will not get any benefit, Chief Minister Adhikari had reiterated earlier.