Cash for query row: Moitra hits back after Ethics panel suggests expulsion

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra on Friday said she will be back with a bigger mandate in 2024, a day after the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee recommended her expulsion from the House in the "cash-for-query" matter.

In a post on X, the TMC MP said, "Proud to go down in parliamentary history as 1st person to be unethically expelled by Ethics Comm whose mandate doesn't include expulsion. 1st expel & THEN ask govt to ask CBI to find evidence. Kangaroo court, monkey business from start to finish".

"Never Waste a Good Crisis they say... - this just helped me double my 2024 winning margin," Moitra said.

The Ethics Committee on Thursday recommended Moitra's expulsion, capping a fortnight of actions that included the deposition of three people over three sittings.

The committee, chaired by BJP Lok Sabha member Vinod Kumar Sonkar, met here and adopted its 479-page report which, according to sources, recommended Moitra's expulsion, possibly the first such action against an MP by the panel.

Sonkar told reporters that six members of the panel supported the adoption of the report and four opposed it.

The four opposition members said the panel's recommendation was prejudiced and incorrect, and said businessman Darshan Hiranandani, who is alleged to have given bribes to Moitra, should have been asked to depose before the panel.

He has only filed an affidavit.