Removal Of Partha Chatterjee Not Enough, Mamata Banerjee Must Resign: CPI(M)

Claiming that mere removal of Partha Chatterjee from state cabinet, days after his arrest in connection with a school recruitment scam, will not set things right, the CPI(M) on Thursday sought West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's resignation.

Tanmoy Bhattacharya, who is the CPI(M)'s Rajya Sabha MP, maintained that deserving candidates might not be able to bag jobs under the Mamata Banerjee regime.

"The Chief Minister should immediately resign from the post. Eligible candidates in the state will not be able get jobs till the time the TMC is in power," said Mr Bhattacharya, who is representing petitioners in multiple cases connected with irregular school appointments before the Calcutta High Court.

In a similar vein, CPI(M)'s West Bengal state secretary Mohammed Salim stated that instances of irregularities have been reported in the past, too, "but no proper action was taken in these cases".

"Several other departments, too, have committed irregularities in the past. These have not been dealt with... Simply removing Chatterjee will not set things right. The chief minister should at least say that she will no longer tolerate such irregularities," Mr Salim told reporters here.

"She is trying to put the blame on others, passing the buck; that's totally wrong," he added.

The ED arrested Partha Chatterjee on July 23 in connection with its investigation into alleged irregularities in a recruitment drive by the West Bengal School Service Commission (SSC).

Earlier in the day, the state government removed Chatterjee from the ministry.

"Partha Chatterjee, minister in charge, department of industry, commerce and enterprises, department of information technology and electronics, department of parliamentary affairs and department of public enterprises and industrial reconstruction, is hereby relieved of his duties as MIC of the aforesaid department," an official order said.

The chief minister said that he would be looking after the portfolios held by Partha Chatterjee for the time being.

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