Left parties seek action against Trinamool MP

The Left parties on Monday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to inquire into the activities of Trinamool Congress MP K.D. Singh, detained at the airport here last week carrying Rs.57 lakh but let off by the authorities with the money.

“We are also surprised by his [Mr. Singh's] reported claim that this money was legitimately drawn from a bank for his own business purposes… We think that this is rather strange because even if the source is known, nobody can vouch for the manner of the end use,” the parties said in a joint letter to the ECI.

Interacting with journalists later, a Left party delegation said they were surprised why the authorities who had detained Mr. Singh and his associates let them off, that too without confiscating the money.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) Central Committee member Nilotpal Basu said the Election Commission, at the last all-party meeting on March 9, informed the parties that it would take suo motu action and mount vigil to curb the use of money power in the April-May Assembly elections. Besides Mr. Basu, the delegation included D. Raja (CPI), Abani Roy (RSP) and S.P. Tiwari (AIFB).

Mr. Basu said the representatives of the four Left parties met the three Election Commissioners and stressed the need to monitor the trail of the money Mr. Singh was carrying and an enquiry should be held to find his whereabouts and activities.

“We hope that the EC will act urgently on this very serious development and redeem its commitment of ensuring elections uncontaminated by money power,” the letter said. The EC told the delegation that it was expecting a report from the Central Board of Direct Taxes following its query on the incident.

D. Raja (CPI) wondered why the authorities let off Mr. Singh even as in Tamil Nadu the EC officials seized over Rs. 24 crore during the last few weeks.

He also drew the attention of the ECI to the use of a helicopter by Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ramesh Chennithala. He sought to know whether the expenditure would be added to the candidate or the party and how he could use the helipad on the police parade ground.