As rebels fly to Delhi to meet EC bench today, Mamata tells workers ‘traitors will be traitors’ | Kolkata News

Kolkata: As Trinamool MLAs of the Ritabrata Banerjee camp took Delhi flights on Wednesday to meet the full bench of the Election Commission “to claim Trinamool control, its symbol and funds”, party chief Mamata Banerjee stepped up the heat, telling party workers “traitors will be traitors forever”.As many as 10 rebel MLAs, including Ritabrata, Sandipan Saha, Javed Khan, Akhruzzaman and Arup Roy are scheduled to meet CEC Gyanesh Kumar and the full EC bench in New Delhi on Thursday noon.Meanwhile, Mamata-loyalist netas held a workers’ conference at Maharashtra Nivas, with Mamata addressing workers on a phone call. “We are the real Trinamool. Those who have betrayed us, those who have committed treachery… we will not take them back. Traitors will remain traitors forever,” she said.Senior netas, including Chandrima Bhattacharya, Madan Mitra, Kunal Ghosh and Sobhaneb Chattopadhyay were present at the meeting.The EC hearing comes days after the rebels removed Mamata Banerjee as party chairperson, constituted a parallel National Working Committee and staked claim to be the “real” Trinamool, while the Mamata camp submitted its own list of office-bearers to the poll panel.Before departing on Wednesday, Ritabrata confirmed that the EC had granted the rebels an audience but declined to elaborate on the purpose of the meeting. “We are the All India Trinamool Congress. We held our special session and sought time from the Election Commission. The full bench has called us for a meeting,” he said.The rebels have maintained that they enjoy the support of two-thirds of the party’s MLAs and therefore constitute the legitimate Trinamool. According to sources, they will seek recognition of the new organisational structure and claim the party’s name, election symbol and funds. Ritabrata, however, insisted there was no question of “claiming” the symbol.“Why should we claim it? We are the Trinamool,” Ritabrata had said after recently submitting documents at the CEO’s office.Sources indicate that after hearing the Ritabrata faction, the Commission is likely to summon representatives of the Mamata camp before deciding which group should be recognised as the official Trinamool entitled to the party’s election symbol.Beleghata MLA and Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh dismissed the rebellion as a BJP-backed conspiracy aimed at weakening the party. Alleging that several rebel netas were facing criminal cases and were seeking political protection, Ghosh said, “They cannot go to their own constituencies. Most of them cannot even show their faces to their relatives. Some are also being pressured, while a few are betraying in an organised way. Others are being pressured through the police and administration.”