Trinamool MP on back foot after creating a controversy

Trinamool Congress MP Subhendu Adhikari, who sparked a controversy with his assertion that he knew how many have conducted and won the recent Lok Sabha elections, today claimed that he meant the CPI(M) and not his party colleagues.
"Many others have won by large margins too, and I thank them, but we know in what manner they conducted the elections and how they won," Adhikari, who retained the Tamluk constituency in East Midnapore district by a margin of over 2.45 lakh votes, said at a meeting in the district yesterday.
Adhikari, who has been removed as the party's youth wing president and made a general secretary, denied having targeted any TMC MP by his comments and claimed that he had meant the CPI(M).

"I indicated the CPI(M) while saying this," Adhikari told PTI over phone.
"I am Trinamool Congress MP and a party worker. I am a disciplined man. I will not say anything that may put the party in any uneasy situation," Adhikari, who had been in the forefront of the party's Nandigram agitation in 2007, said.
Asked about party supremo Mamata Banerjee's decision to remove him as the youth wing president and appoint him as a TMC general secretary, Adhikari said, "It is the decision of our supreme leader. It is she who will decide as to who will be what in the party."

"I have been in the post for five years," he said.

Asked whether he was unhappy with the party supremo's decision, Adhikari said, "If I have anything to say, I will say that within the party forum."
The TMC leadership, however, refused to comment on it during a press conference here today.
Two days ago, party supremo Mamata Banerjee had removed him from the post of Trinamool Congress youth wing president. He was nominated as one of the party's general secretaries along with his critic and Haldia MLA Shiuli Saha.
During his speech yesterday, Adhikari said that some people had claimed that his popularity had dipped and his winning margin would decrease this time.