‘My statement has been misinterpreted’

After triggering a controversy in the party circles with his reported comments on Friday, Trinamool Congress MP Debabrata Bandyopadhyay on Saturday said he had never said that the leadership was slack in weeding out bad elements from the party.

“I am a soldier of the Trinamool Congress and a committed party worker. I joined the party inspired by Mamata Banerjee’s honesty and organisational capabilities. My statement has been misinterpreted. I did not mean it. All I said was that dissenting voices were normal in any democratic party,” Mr. Bandyopadhyay said in a statement here.

“Those of us who come from non-political background need to be extra careful in the future in what we say because our general statements are being misconstrued,” Mr. Bandyopadhyay, former IAS officer, said.

“I had never meant that the leadership was slack or immune to it. I have the highest regards for Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress. I will be a member of the party till my last breath,” Mr. Bandyopadhyay, a Rajya Sabha member, said.

“There is no question of my leaving the party... I am 100 per cent... 500 per cent with the Trinamool,” he said.

Stating that a person can be called guilty only if he is proven guilty in the court of law, the TMC MP had said yesterday that ‘bad people’ of the party will be removed by the people itself.

“During Singur, Nandigram many of us came together for a cause. We were honest. But now that cause doesn’t exist so we are no longer together,” Mr. Bandopadhyay has said.

When asked who should remove those bad people from the party, Mr. Bandopadhyay had said in a TV interview, “Who will remove the bad people? The person who will remove those people will become king, he will become dictator. Neither you nor I can remove this people. The people will remove them from their posts.”

Mr. Bandopadhyay’s statements had come in the backdrop of anti-party statements made by several TMC leaders and MPs in the recent past. - PTI

I had never meant that the leadership was slack or immune…I have the highest regards for Mamata Banerjee, says Debabrata Bandyopadhyay