News of resignation a lie, says Sovan Chatterjee

Kolkata: Ruling out his resignation from his posts and party, once again, heavyweight Trinamul Congress minister and Kolkata mayor Sovan Chatterjee on Tuesday asserted that party supremo and chief Mamata Banerjee has directed him to continue in his roles. He alleged that someone spread lies intentionally about him willing to step down as the city mayor and leave the party.

Referring to his links with Baishakhi Banerjee who was removed from the post of WEBCUPA general secretary Mr Chatterjee described her as a “family-friend.” He even expressed his gratitude to her and her family for standing by him in the hours of crisis. He said, “A person with vested interests along with others is behind the malicious campaign of my resignation. Only they can explain the motive of this propaganda.”

Mr Chatterjee elaborated, “The budget session is underway at the Kolkata municipal corporation. I am working here. Had I tendered my resignation, I would not have certainly worked here sitting in my chair.” On the questions of his distance with the Trinamul and the party’s warning to him about his links with Ms Banerjee he alleged, “A nexus is active to serve its purpose by spreading these lies. Such thoughts are baseless.”

Mr Chatterjee claimed, “On Monday I had several rounds of talks with Didi. She asked me to continue with my work. Baishakhi Banerjee’s name surfaced in a media report. But chief minister Mamata Banerjee never took her name to me during our talks. There is no issue of any warning to me. But there is a specific issue. I was passing through a tough time. Had she and her family not stood by me, the situation in which I am now would not have existed. She is my family-friend.”

He also vowed to stand by Ms Banerjee, a college teacher, in her crisis. According to him, it was unfortunate that level spreading lies reached personal fields also. “If anyone intends to carry out attack on her, I will first face it,” the Kolkata mayor added. Rejecting his estranged wife Ratna Chatterjee’s allegation that his present address belongs to her brother Subhashish, he argued that he has the residential rights to stay there.

Asked if he would return to his original residence in Parnashree, Mr Chatterjee said, “If I die, my body will not be taken there.” Reacting to his comments on Ms Banerjee, Ms Chatterjee however claimed, “Baishakhi was never a family friend of us. I do not want to hear her name.”