Kolkata: Amidst the news of her party leaders getting arrested, the last thing that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee would not wanted is MP Jawhar Sircar expressing his family’s desire for him to quit politics, following the unceremonious arrest of his party leaders – Anubrata Mondal and Partha Chatterjee.
The former bureaucrat has had a spotless track record.
On Monday, while speaking to ABP Ananda, he pointed out that a part of TMC is ‘completely rotten’ and Bharatiya Janata Party cannot be fought in the 2024 elections with such elements remaining in the party.
Sircar has served Manmohan Singh as well as the Narendra Modi government and has been the chief executive officer (CEO) of Prasar Bharati. He was sent to Rajya Sabha by TMC in 2021.
Once he had said that in 2011 itself, he had got an offer to join politics, but he had not accepted it and continued his Indian Administrative Service (IAS) work.
In Rajya Sabha, he has been the most prominent faces of the party after Mahua Moitra and Derek O’ Brein.
On social media many describe him as (PM) Modi critic. And he has always been on the target of right-wing troll army. The right-wing website OpIndia often writes negative stories about him.
He mentioned that his family and friends asked him to quit politics after TMC leaders Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mondal were arrested.
“You can’t put up a fight against the BJP in 2024 with rotten elements in the party. A portion of the party is completely rotten. These rotten elements have to be operated out, or else it will infect the entire body,” he told ABP.
Referring to the hoards of cash recovered at the apartment of Arpita Mukherjee, an associate of Chatterjee, he said it was a very embarrassing moment for him.
“I had never encountered such a situation even when I was an IAS officer. My family asked me to quit politics, my friends called me up to ask how much I got. It was a very embarrassing moment for me,” he said.
Sircar made it clear that he joined politics to defeat the BJP.
He also stated how important the 2024 general election is for the nation. “If even after ten years we fail to defeat the BJP in 2024, then there might not be any other Lok Sabha election,” he claimed.
TMC leaders have declined to comment on Sircar’s statement.
